The joint project "FDLink" - Strengthening the framework for cultural change and a shared service landscape

Six universities from the federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg (Germany), which collabo-rated already successfully in the projects FDMentor and FDNext, are teaming up again for the joint project FDLink funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, funding period: 2024-2027). FDLink aims to develop guidelines, concepts, and models in which institutional and cross-institutional RDM services are closely interlinked. In six work packages (WPs), we take up and develop further the findings and results from both predecessor projects. We address two core topics in particular: the conception and establishment of organisational and governance structures for RDM, as well as training and education measures for the use of research data infrastructures. WP1 (Universit ¨ at Potsdam) focuses on the development and application of a reusable frame-work for faculties, incorporating existing models (RISE-DE, DIAMANT, UpdateFDM, Road2Openness) and relevant stakeholders to embed RDM and FAIR/Open Data into the organisational units and practices of scientific institutions. WP2 (Technische Universit ¨ at Berlin) develops a toolbox that enables scientific institutions to develop internal RDM structures and processes. It consists of a step-by-step guide and flexi-bly reusable patterns and templates, e.g., for guidelines and process diagrams. WP3 (Humboldt-Universit ¨ at zu Berlin) evaluates the maturity model UpdateFDM in order to adapt for cross-institutional use. UpdateFDM enables media and computing Alshawaf et al. | CoRDI2025 centers, university libraries, and other central institutions to create and maintain a sustainable and open RDM infrastructure for IT services. In WP4 (Europa-Universit ¨ at Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder), the aim is to expand the concept of first-level support to include second-level support with regard to ethical aspects. WP5 (Freie Universit ¨ at Berlin) develops a low-threshold RDM training module that can be inte-grated into mandatory courses for doctoral students, e.g., in courses on good scientific prac-tice. WP6 (Brandenburgische Technische Universit ¨ at Cottbus-Senftenberg) implements a hybrid consulting and training concept to expand the RDM-related competencies and to increase the individual benefits of RDM training. WP7 (Humboldt-Universit ¨ at zu Berlin) is responsible for project coordination and monitoring the overall project progress (e.g., tracking milestones). The tasks also include communication with the DFG, project partners and the RDM community. Here, we present the interim state of the project with regard to the first preliminary results from the work packages, which we will share with the community and put up for discussion in the upcoming input workshop as well (planned for late 2025). So far, the results include: • a qualitative survey on how to embed RDM and Open Science in the faculties (WP1) • the development of an innovative three-part workshop format (Explore - Create Evaluate) for internal RDM solutions, piloted with four research groups (WP2) • concept for the integration of RDM training in courses on good scientific practice (WP5) • analysis of successful institutional and inter-institutional structures for RDM, including strategy workshop on structural integration and stakeholder networking (WP6) • the launch of the project website (WP7) • the agreement on a joint research data policy (WP7) • the creation of the WP-specific data management plans.