Conference Agenda

The EU Horizon Europe project EOSC EDEN was launched in 2025 to support trustworthy digital preservation in research data infrastructures. This paper introduces a first output of EOSC EDEN, the Core Preservation Processes (CPPs), a structured yet flexible set of process descriptions that articulates the essential steps involved in digital preservation in a hands-on manner. Developed by practitioners and designed as practical guidance, the 30 CPPs describe essential, system-agnostic actions that should be ensured by trusted digital archives. By offering a shared terminology and process model, the CPPs help bridge gaps between research data management and digital preservation, providing the communities a powerful tool to support training, policy, and system development. They shall address the challenge of making digital preservation knowledge more accessible, actionable and interoperable within the EOSC ecosystem and beyond.

This paper reports on a series of collaborative self-evaluations on support services for Research Data Management (RDM) at Irish Research Performing Organisations (RPOs). The evaluations are carried out as part of the iFrame project, which is tasked with drafting a national RDM framework for Ireland.

The aim of the evaluations is to:

1. Assess institutional maturity of the services provided and enable the identification of areas for improvement via tailored reports for individual institutions.

2. Gather inputs for a landscape report on the state of RDM service provision in Irish RPOs.

3. Identify best practices in institutions that can be integrated into the upcoming national RDM framework.

The paper commences with a contextual discussion of the Irish higher education environment and the research policy environment that advocates the development of RDM practices. This is followed by a brief review of the literature that examines RDM support and practice in RPOs, utilising maturity models. The main section of the paper outlines the research rationale, design, and methodology employed in the iFrame project, which is built around the principles of openness, collaboration, and process orientation. The paper concludes with an overview of results and anticipated impact, and provides an outlook on the next steps of the project and the development of RDM at Irish RPOs.

Trustworthy Digital Repository (TDR) certification processes are mechanisms through which digital repositories signal quality and commitment to best practices to external stakeholders. In a scholarly landscape with constrained funding and the threat of austerity measures, certification serves as a risk mitigation strategy that repositories use to articulate their value. This study examines repository staff attitudes about CoreTrustSeal (CTS) certification requirements to understand how professional expertise shapes perspectives on what makes repositories trustworthy for long-term digital preservation.

A survey was administered to all CTS certified repositories in fall 2020, with 88 responses from repository staff (53.98% response rate). Respondents ranked the three sections of the CTS Requirements by importance and answered follow-up questions about specific requirements. Professional roles were categorized as administration, digital preservation, IT, and other, and respondents indicated whether they had experience as CTS reviewers.

Findings demonstrate that respondents consistently ranked Organizational Infrastructure as the most important section of the CTS requirements, followed by Digital Object Management, and then Technology. Responses demonstrated a relationship between respondent expertise and attitudes about the CTS requirements. Additionally, those with experience as reviewers had more consistent views than those without review experience, indicating that exposure to multiple repository contexts through the review process also influences attitudes about certification.. These results suggest that expertise does indeed play a role in attitudes about CTS certification requirements.