Helpdesk on Research Data Management: AI-based Chatbot for FAIR Research Data in Portugal

This lightning talk concentrates on presenting the project’s helpdesk system, a service that blends artificial intelligence with distributed human expertise. At its core is an AI-driven chatbot powered by state-of-the-art natural-language processing. The bot understands free-text questions, retrieves curated, context-aware guidance and automatically escalates complex or discipline-specific issues to domain specialists, thereby reducing first-response times and releasing staff to focus on higher-value curation and stewardship tasks. A key innovation is the knowledge base that powers the chatbot. Created in collaboration with a growing network of institutional Competence Centres, this multilingual repository contains entries such as FAQs, policy templates and decision trees covering data management planning, secure storage, legal and ethical compliance, FAIRification techniques, and long-term preservation strategies. Regular content sprints and community editorial workflows ensure the guidance remains authoritative, evidence-based and traceable.