From acquisition to advice

To be succesful in the support of data intensive science you need the following four ingredients:

1. A clear vision and purpose. WHAT do you want to achieve?
2. Know-How. WHAT do you know? What don't you know yet?
3. Practical Knowledge. WHAT is going on in the workplace? WHAT part of your knowledge is important for practicing your customer's profession?
4. Skills to exert influence. HOW can you put your vision, expert knowledge and practical knowledge into practical advice and results?

In module I you have gained insight into current practices in data curation. In module II and III we have worked on the necessary know-how. And in this last module we will focus on the HOW? How can you make sure your knowledge and experience fall on fertile ground.

Acquisition is the first phase in an advisory process. It is the phase in which you seek out researchers/research groups who want to be advised. You make them aware of questions they didn't know they had yet. Questions to which you may have (part) of the answer or solution. During the acquisition phase you work on building a good relationship with the customer. Once a clear question arises, you are ready for giving actual advice¹.

Keeping the goal of supporting your customers in mind (the support of researchers/research groups with data curation) makes is easier to vary in possible solutions. It is not a goal in itself to immediately make research data available via open access. 3TU.Datacentrum has the motto: "Open when possible, closed when necessary". Maybe they want to store their data in a data lab first? Do they want to be supported in writing a Data Management Plan? Would they want to make an enhanced publication? As a consultant you keep the big picture in mind. When a research group wants to (or has to) store their research data in a public data portal in time, they'd better take into account the necessary precautions in an early stage. You can then advise about responsible data management, adding metadata en saving data in sustainable data formats.

^{1. Nathans, H. (2011). Adviseren als tweede beroep (3rd edition), Kluwer}