The Training & Education (EduTrain) section of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) has successfully navigated its strategic concept through the NFDI-wide strategy process and, at the same time, published its comprehensive report on the first working phase (2021–2025) (Section Work Report). This provides, for the first time, a consolidated, community-driven foundation for the systematic promotion of data literacy and research data management (RDM) across disciplinary boundaries. The guiding principle of these activities is ‘Data literacy from the outset!’, which underscores the importance of data-related skills as a key competence in science, teaching and beyond.
The section’s key achievement is the development of a coherent, modular overall concept for training and educational programmes. Based on a comprehensive analysis of target groups and needs, three key personas (teachers, learners and content contributors) were defined, and a community-validated learning objective matrix was established, which serves as an interdisciplinary reference framework for FDM competencies. Building on this, the EduBricks concept emerged as a scalable approach to the structured creation and reuse of teaching materials. In parallel, DALIA was developed as a FAIR-oriented knowledge base serving as a central platform for Open Educational Resources (OER) in the field of data literacy; a prototype is already available and the platform is growing continuously.
Another milestone is the successful launch of the RDMTraining4NFDI core service, which, since 2025, has been driving the development of standardised training formats, modular materials and certification schemes, whilst strengthening community networking. These activities are complemented by the development of the DALIA Interchange Format (DIF) to ensure interoperability and quality, as well as by a federated curation approach for sustainable OER infrastructures. Alongside this, extensive measures relating to networking, outreach and the establishment of a nationwide RDM helpdesk network have been implemented.
The section also pays particular attention to establishing a constructive culture of error in academia, with a view to strengthening openness and quality in the handling of research data in the long term. Overall, EduTrain has thus laid the essential foundations for an interoperable, quality-assured and sustainable training and support system. With the successful completion of the first phase, the focus is now on the widespread implementation, institutional embedding and further scaling of the developed concepts within the NFDI and beyond.
