From 5 to 8 May 2025, representatives of the Latvian Data Stewards Network, Līna Lāže and Viola Daniela Kiseļova, participated in an Erasmus+ staff experience mobility at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, where they gained significant insight into research data management and the promotion of the open science movement.
During the visit, the Institute of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), which operates both as a structural unit of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ljubljana and as a national ELIXIR- I node, which is part of the European Life Sciences Infrastructure for Biological Information (ELIXIR) consortium, was visited.
Special attention was paid to the SPOZNAJ project, which creates a professional support network for the implementation of open science at Slovenian universities. Meetings with project representatives and data stewards from the University of Ljubljana allowed for an exchange of experiences, examples of good practice and discussions on future cooperation. Colleagues from the University of Ljubljana were interested in the experience of the Latvian data stewards network in research data management, especially highlighting the DataverseLV repository.
Within the framework of the mobility, the data stewards gave a presentation “Data Curators at the Intersection of IT, Research, and Data – Latvian Experience of Building the Research Ecosystem”, as well as gave a lecture and led a practical lesson for medical students from the University of Ljubljana on the basics of research data management.
Such experience contributes to gaining new perspectives and opportunities for further cooperation with foreign partners. The Slovenian example emphasises the need for a coordinated approach, combining institutional, national and international levels, to promote the implementation of open science and improve the quality of data management.
