D2.3 CATALOGUE AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROACTIVE, EFFICIENT AND EVOLVING DISSCO TRAINING PROGRAMME

Abstract

The competencies and skills to provide digital access to Natural History Collections (NHC) data, as well as curate and use that data are fundamental to meet the goals of the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) Research Infrastructure (RI). Training activities targeting DiSSCo users and service providers (e.g., researchers, curators) constitute a cornerstone to these unprecedented objectives. This Deliverable 2.3 (D2.3) from task 3 within work package NA2 of the EU-funded SYNTHESYS+ project, provides the first catalogue of existing training, supplied by the NA2.3 partners and a few additional SYNTHESYS+ beneficiaries, that are potentially available to the DiSSCo community. The catalogue includes the following information on the training courses: training title, institution, city, target audience, length, in-take capacity, frequency, the position of the trainer, language, format, fees, and certification. In addition, D2.3 presents an in-depth assessment of the catalogue’s training landscape in view of DiSSCo training needs. Based on this assessment, recommendations have been formulated for the construction of an efficient and proactive “DiSSCo training programme”. More specifically, the assessment involved organising the catalogue of training into Key Training Areas (KTAs), which is a classification developed in NA2.3 to define the broad educational categories, domains and areas on which NHC trainers are currently concentrating. Using the KTA classifications, the training landscape was mapped to the DiSSCo Implementation Readiness Levels (IRLs) (i.e., Technological, Data, Organisation, Scientific and Financial), which correspond to the areas that DiSSCo needs to become proficient, in order to be fully operational. This analysis allowed for the identification of gaps, in terms of areas that are not covered yet or barely covered by the NHC related training landscape, but are critically needed to fulfil the IRLs. In general, it is advised that within the next 3 years the following activities are undertaken: (1) Establish an exhaustive inventory of the available training activities by broadening the criteria and widening the communities inventoried, for instance including the training programs of other related infrastructures and international initiatives as well as courses from the academic sector; (2) Address further training topics in complementary areas linked to the Natural History (NH) community, such as general IT skills or legal and financial aspects; and (3) Adjust and expand the boundaries of the catalogue according to the DiSSCo training objectives and needs once DiSSCo services are fully defined and integrated. To coordinate efforts and better disseminate the catalogue of training developed, the collaboration will be pursued with the existing Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST), an Page | 6 initiative run by the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF). This platform will be used to allocate the catalogue of training resources through which the target audience will be efficiently outreached. As an optimal solution offered to the DiSSCo community and NH training providers, DEST is acting as the physical and online platform showcasing the community the NH training on offer. It also has an interface for the training providers, as well as for the trainees, dedicated to administration. The present catalogue of training activities will feed the DEST platform and contribute to increasing the richness and up-to-dateness of the content, its robustness in terms of data quality and criteria, and its networking role notably through the access to trainers’ contact. To conclude, the authors of this report recommend that the catalogue, methodology and analysis are used as a tool and guideline to develop the training activities suitable for DiSSCo needs, as a structure and content provider for DEST and as a collaborative incentive and set of information to foster the use of the existing rich training offer among the NH institutions and to promote and enlarge training activities throughout the entire community. Specific recommendations have been formulated in the text next to each component of the analysis and are listed in Section 5.