From Challenges to Solutions: The Estonian Journey in Research Data Management

From Challenges to Solutions: The Estonian Journey in Research Data Management Diana Pilvar Data Manager Institute of Computer Science University of Tartu Training Coordinator ELIXIR Estonia [email protected] Who am I? Genetic Engineering BSc Bioinformatics MSc Human Molecular Genetics lab Proteomics core lab Training coordinator Data manager ELIXIR Research Data Management community member RDMkit Editor Why is data management important? Allium UPI, a firm dealing with pharmacy and hospital products, was hacked in 2024. A backup database breach exposed personal data of nearly half of Estonia’s population. Stolen data includes 400,000+ emails, 60,000 home addresses, and 30,000 phone numbers. How? Backup copy of the database was breached with information from the years 2014 to 2020. Fine - 3 millions - Allium UPI is appealing in court Lessons Learned: Secure and encrypt all backups. Old data can still cause major harm. Data minimisation matters. The company’s reputation smeared. https://news.err.ee/1609791258/company-fined-3-million-over-apotheka-loyalty-program-data-breach https://news.err.ee/1609302096/cybercriminals-steal-data-of-around-700-000-apotheka-pharmacy-customers Apotheka data breach 2024 Academic in trouble A prominent academic, known as Professor Lee, shared LiDAR research data in collaboration with Chinese researchers under China's Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) while working at a top South Korean university. LiDAR is considered a 'national core technology' by the South Korean government. The court determined that Lee had violated the South Korean Industrial Technology Protection Act by sharing this technology and had leaked trade secrets by sharing university-owned research data without consent or approval. The Supreme Court of South Korea has upheld a two-year prison sentence https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02182-2 Government data center on fireRECENT A fire at the National Information Resources Service destroyed the government’s G-Drive cloud storage system, erasing work files saved individually by some 750,000 civil servants Damages to 96 information systems designated as critical to central government operations, including the G-Drive platform. The G-Drive has been in use since 2018, requiring government officials to store all work documents in the cloud instead of on personal computers. It provided around 30 gigabytes of storage per person. However, due to the system’s largecapacity, low-performance storage structure, no external backups were maintained — meaning all data has been permanently lost. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-10-01/national/socialAffairs/NIRS-fire-destroys-governments-cloud-storage-system-no-backups-available/2412936 https://www.chosun.com/english/national-en/2025/10/02/FPWGFSXMLNCFPIEGWKZF3BOQ3M/ Good data management practices keep our data safe, well organised and reusable. Data management in University of Tartu: What has been done What needs to be done Biggest challenges Different data management policies in Estonian universities Different data management approaches in Europe Data management in University of Tartu Cons Many guidelines missing or not detailed enough Guidelines hidden in Intranet - not available to public Not all in the same location, hard to find University of Tartu Library and ELIXIR Estonia offers consultancy - not widely known DMP writing Access to DMPonline using university account Guideline on how to write DMP Network of professionals needs funding Communities do not function without activities, conferences, peer learning Include other universities Possibly THE GROUP to do the activities below via contentathons DMP template for University of Tartu Guidelines for data storage in the University of Tartu Data management policy ( in the University of Tartu) Data management strategy (in the University of Tartu) What needs to be done Data management courses Research Data Management and Publishing (3 ECTS) LTOM.00.007 Understanding Open Science, Open Access Research data lifecycle; Creating data management plan; How to find and use open research data PlutoF platform introduction Data management plan (lecture 2h, 1x a year, 1 month before deadline) University of Tartu Library course https://sisu.ut.ee/andmehaldus/?lang=en Challenges Covers only PhD students University of Tartu Library course is not mandatory and part of only one (!!) curricula 01 Researchers don’t find time for workshopsor don’t know about them 02 Focus is on practical workshops The FAIR Principles Crash course in data management Metadata and README files Licensing Cleaning Messy Data with OpenRefine software Bring your own Data Management Plan Version control with Git Markdown Courses by ELIXIR Estonia https://elixir.ut.ee/training/upcoming/ Starting from 2023: On average only 1 full time person doing data management courses We've run 25 courses on data management with 388 attendees We have supervised 84 people during 10 DMP writing workshops Courses by ELIXIR Estonia Technical solutions The environment reduces the risk of possible unauthorized retrieval of sensitive data from the machines, providing a higher level of security than that of a standard highperformance cluster. SAPU is an isolated environment where: Complete network isolation is enforced through firewall rules. Access to the machine is only possible via a virtual desktop environment. Analysts can upload files using object storage, which logs all transferred data. Extracting files requires approval from data owners. The monitoring layer records all actions taken. Sensitive data analysis platform - SAPU https://docs.hpc.ut.ee/public/services/SAPU/ Different data management policies in Estonian universities Estonian University of Life Sciences All data management related support is offered only by university library Guidelines for Open Science Open access publishing Data Management plans Personal Data Protection and Research Integrity Rights and licenses Data Management policy? None exists. https://library.emu.ee/en/open-sciene https://library.emu.ee/en/data-management-plans Tallinn University of Technology All data management related support is offered only by university library Data Management policy? None exists. Similar guidelines to UT and EMU DMP courses during funding calls TalTechData repository https://taltech.ee/en/library/data-management-plan https://data.taltech.ee Tallinn University All data management related support is offered only by university library Data Management policy? None exists. Guidelines for Open Science but not Data Management Consultancy Estonian Academy of Arts Nothing could be found on their website regarding data management EAMT has attended ELIXIR courses Data Management policy? None exists. https://www.artun.ee/en/home/ Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre https://eamt.ee/en/ National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics All data management related support is currently offered by ELIXIR Estonia Data Management policy? https://kbfi.ee/?lang=en National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics Data Management policy? It exists! https://kbfi.ee/?lang=en All data management related support is currently offered by ELIXIR Estonia What about the rest of Europe? To find out about different approaches, you need to network Research data management oriented groups Netherlands - Data Stewards Interest Group Open to all data stewards, cross-domain Once a month online meeting Slack channel https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13846654 https://www.dtls.nl/about/community/interest-groups/data-stewards-interest-group/ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4623713 Big inspiration - Netherlands Moving towards professionalising data stewardship since 2021 Detailed description of each skillset Big inspiration - Netherlands https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4623713 Job profiles and case studies available But how do people acquire the skills of a data steward? Duration 2 Semesters (Part-Time) Scope 15 ECTS credits Language English Cost 2,950 Euros Application Deadline June 30th, 2025 Course Start October, 2025 Contact [email protected] The University of Vienna Data Steward Certificate Course https://rdm.univie.ac.at/data-stewards-at-the-university/become-a-data-steward/ https://www.postgraduatecenter.at/en/programs/communication-media/data-steward/content-and-objectives/ Finland - self study with certificate https://csc.fi/en/training-calendar/cscs-self-study-research-data-management-course/ Resources https://rdmkit.elixir-europe.org https://dmeg.cessda.eu Resources Challenges remain universal Experiences from my international colleagues 1.Data Stewardship role and skillset is not understood 2.No fines for not following best practices. Scientists have no incentives 3.The challenge: value vs effort in time spent for RDM 4.RDM courses attendance is low. 5.Institutes/ Universities/ Funders might have conflicting approaches/policies 6.Information silos and communication issues We are on our way We are in the middle of the race We have end goal(s) and possible solutions in mind Change is never easy, but it will be rewarding Try to break out of information silos and collaborate