Data Curation as a Stepwise Service to Data Sustainability: The Grey Area Between Small-Scale Applications and Large-Scale Data Repositories

In developing a system architecture, data curation should be viewed as a crucial task for ensuring data sustainability, particularly managing the diverse scales of data organization - each with varying size, complexity, and resource requirements. The approach at hand considers data curation as a staged service aimed at bridging the intermediate zone between small-scale data management and the requirements of large-scale repositories. Within this scope, datasets often lack the formal structure and resources of major repositories but still require careful curation to meet the FAIR principles: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability. The proposed framework offers an incremental approach within the data curation workflow to address these needs. Key to this workflow is a specialized software component - the Data Transfer Facilitator (DTF). The DTF is designed to streamline the transition of data from smaller systems into standardized, large-scale repositories, mitigating common transfer challenges. The architectural design should support adaptable archiving practices and sustainable data management strategies. An incremental approach allows smaller datasets to integrate with larger data infrastructures over time, adapt to evolving standards, and maximize the long-term utility of data resources across multiple disciplines. A prototype is used to demonstrate the form and function of a DTF for a project. Various prototypes are used to demonstrate the DTF's practical implementation.