National resources: Netherlands
Introduction
This is an overview of research data management resources in the Netherlands, relevant for researchers in the Netherlands and to their collaborators.
The ELIXIR Netherlands website provides information on the organisation of and resources for ELIXIR Netherlands partners. The Dutch ELIXIR Node is hosted by the Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences (DTL), a public-private partnership of more than 50 life science institutions, and focuses on data stewardship capacity building, services and infrastructure to support FAIR implementation for the Dutch life science research.
Funders
National funders NWO and ZonMw consider responsible research data management an essential component of good research practice. They promote FAIR data stewardship - among others via mandatory data management plans, the requirement to deposit and share (meta)data, and facilitating researchers in creating FAIR data, with help of the GO FAIR Foundation, Health-RI and DTL. For information on the requirements for FAIR data stewardship, visit the funders’ webpages and consult their particular policies on data management and Open Science.
National initiatives
Together with Health-RI, DTL is leading the national roadmap for the Thematic Digital Competence Center (TDCC) for Life Science & Health (LSH), funded by NWO. The TDCC LSH network was established in the spring of 2022, and is contributing to strengthening and harmonising the digital practises among stakeholders in the broad Dutch research domains of life sciences and biomedical/health sciences. The TDCC-LSH is collaborating cross-domain with Social Sciences and Humanities (TDCC-SSH) and Natural and Engineering Sciences (TDCC-NES).
Moreover, DTL also coordinates the National Programme Open Science (NPOS) FAIR Data Programme Line, and has delivered the reports Towards FAIR data steward as profession for the lifesciences and Professionalising data stewardship in the Netherlands, including the NPOS/ELIXIR Data Stewardship Competency Framework.
The following national services provide useful information and support:
- The National Coordination Point Research Data Management (LCRDM)
- SURF, the collaborative organisation for IT in Dutch education and research
- DANS, the Dutch national centre of expertise and repository for research data
- 4TU.ResearchData, the Dutch national data repository for science, engineering and design
- Netherlands eScience Center (NleSC), building and applying software to enhance the use of computing and digital technologies in academic research
- Research Data Netherlands (RDNL), collaboration of SURF, 4TU.ResearchData, DANS and DTL to contribute to strengthening the National Programme Open Science, and helping create a FAIR research ecosystem across science fields, and its Essentials 4 Data Support Training
- The DTL Data Stewards Interest Group (DSIG), the Dutch (and beyond) community hub for data stewardship that enables informal and inclusive knowledge and experience exchange
- NL-RSE, the Dutch community of people writing and contributing to research software
- The Dutch Open Science Communities (OSC), independent, bottom up local communities comprising members of various scientific disciplines and career stages, who want to learn more about Open Science
- RDA-NL, the Dutch Research Data Alliance Node
Assistance
- Researchers seeking practical assistance best check RDM in the Netherlands, which provides information on the various local universities’ and university medical centers support desks
- Researchers can contact the Health-RI service desk for practical guidelines, tools and services, or the ELSI servicedesk for ethical, legal and social issues
- The X-omics helpdesk provides researchers assistance with X-omics research infrastructure
Tools and resources
Tailored to users in Netherlands
Developed and/or deployed by institutions and organisations in Netherlands.
Skip tool table| Resource | Description | Related pages | Registry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health-RI Service Catalogue | Health-RI provides a set of tools and services available to the biomedical research community. |
Human data Researcher Data analysis Existing data Data storage | |
| BBMRI catalogue | Biobanking Netherlands makes biosamples, images and data findable, accessible and usable for health research. |
Human data Researcher Data analysis Existing data Data storage | |
| CBS, Statistics Netherlands | The national statistical office, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), provides reliable statistical information and data in the life sciences and health domain. |
Human data Researcher Existing data | |
| Technology Hotels | More than 130 Technology Hotels offer access to high-end technology and expertise in the field of bioimaging, bioinformatics, genomics, medical imaging, metabolomics, phenotyping, proteomics, structural biology, and/or systems biology. |
Human data Bioimaging data Proteomics Researcher Compliance monitoring & measurement | |
| Dutch COVID-19 Data Support Programme | To support investigators and health care professionals with tools and services in their search for ways to overcome the pandemic and its health consequences. |
Human data Researcher Existing data | |
| RIVM Health and Healthcare Data | The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), together with other organisations, provides numbers and explanation on relevant topics, to prevent duplication of data collection. |
Human data Researcher Existing data | |
| Handbook for Adequate Natural Data Stewardship | Guidelines on data stewardship and practical toolbox for researchers at Dutch University Medical Centres (UMCs). |
Human data Researcher Data management plan Compliance monitoring & measurement | |
| 23 Things for Research Data Management tool | Shared reference tool for knowledge on data management. |
Human data Data management plan Compliance monitoring & measurement | |
| FAIR-Aware | Online tool which helps researchers and data managers assess how much they know about the requirements for making datasets findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) before uploading them into a data repository. |
Researcher Data management plan Compliance monitoring & measurement Data publication |
Netherlands contributes to
Institutions and organisations in Netherlands are actively involved in the development of the following tools and resources.
Skip tool table| Resource | Description | Related pages | Registry |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAIRsharing | A curated, informative and educational resource on data and metadata standards, inter-related to databases and data policies. |
Documentation and metadata Data publication Data Steward: policy Data Steward: research Researcher Microbial biotechnology Existing data | Standards/Databases Training |
| Molgenis | Molgenis is a modular web application for scientific data. Molgenis provides researchers with user friendly and scalable software infrastructures to capture, exchange, and exploit the large amounts of data that is being produced by scientific organisations all around the world. |
Identifiers Data Steward: infrastructure Data Steward: research | Tool info |
| XNAT | Open source imaging informatics platform. It facilitates common management, productivity, and quality assurance tasks for imaging and associated data. |
Researcher Data analysis TransMed XNAT-PIC Bioimaging data | |
| Data Stewardship Wizard | Publicly available online tool for composing smart data management plans |
Data management plan Researcher Data Steward: research Data Steward: infrastructure NeLS TSD Plant Phenomics | Tool info Training |
More information
Celia van Gelder
Mijke Jetten
Editor
Rob Hooft