FAIRagro's Power of Support - Cultural Change through more and merrier Helpdesk Customers in the Agrosystem Science

How do I reach potential helpdesk-customers? This is the question every helpdesk has to ask itself – preferably right at the beginning of its operation - because even the best setup with the most competent data stewards is useless if nobody knows of it. You need to lead the metaphorical horse to water. Establishing helpdesks for Research Data Management (RDM) is a key component towards sustainable science and it's even better, when they are domain-specific. The potential beneficiaries are plenty. Let us show you how WE did it. We are FAIRagro's DSSC – the Data Steward Service Center also known as "The FAIRagro Helpdesk" and this is our story. Who are we – and what makes us stand out? As the FAIRagro Helpdesk [1], we support scientists all over Germany and even internationally with their questions regarding RDM in agrosystem science and its many bordering domains. We operate on the motto: "from the community for the community": Our data stewards themselves are part of the agrosystem research community. They bring together expertise on data from different parts of the agrosystem science like soil data, experimental field data, genetic data ("omics data"), phenotyping data, field robotics & sensor data, and big geodata [2] and open data publication along the FAIR principles. These competencies are embedded in the context of FAIRagro's research disciplines, ranging cross-scale from genes, phenomics, crop trials and management to landscapes and regions, focusing mainly on plants, soil and environment. Additionally, we have a lawyer as a Data Steward for law and ethics [3]. Her main taskis to offer legal support, looking at questions dealing with e.g. anonymisation/pseudonymisation or copyright and licenses. How we reached our customers We realized early on that we couldn't rely on customers finding us. We have to go out and make ourselves known. There are many different things that we did and still do. One of the most important ones is probably the active engagement of our data stewards in RDM-Trainings. Additionally, we are well-networked, for example in contributing to the Geo-Chem-Life Science Helpdesk Cluster within the NFDI and with international partners in agricultural research in the Netherlands and Sweden. We will show you how we operate and what specific measures we took and take to raise attention and to gather customers – and to keep them! Facts Facts: Ticket Statistics Let's get analytical: Noting down some comprehensive values and categories for our tickets allows us to analyze their quantitative development in a statistical manner. We will show you some of our ticket analytics and potential correlations of ticket spikes with our customer-acquisition efforts. Everything is sufficiently anonymized in terms of data protection. The other side of the coin: hurdles we had to overcome Being known alone isn't enough: It's a long way from getting our foot in the door to lowering inhibitions to write tickets. There were hurdles we had and still have to overcome. We will present you what we already did and what we plan in the future! With this presentation we aim to present and reflect the status of our FAIRagro Helpdesk, how we keep continuous contact with customers and we would love to hear about your experiences and best practices to do so.