UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State was selected as one of five institutions to participate in a pilot program to explore how academic institutions can leverage machine-actionable data management and sharing plans (maDMSPs) to enhance and scale research support workflows and processes. Sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries and California Digital Library, the project will be carried out by Penn State University Libraries in partnership with the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research.

As part of the University’s participation, a two-day collaborative educational event is planned, with the goal of pulling together individuals from different areas that might be able to make use of maDMSPs or who need to be involved in their development or approval. The Machine-Actionable Data Management Workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 1–2 in the Dewey Room at Pattee Library on the University Park Campus.

“Through various activities and presentations, participants will discuss common data management challenges and how maDMSPs could improve the research experience at the University and strengthen the ways in which we already collaborate,” said Briana Ezray Wham, research data management librarian and Data Learning Center manager, Penn State University Libraries. “We hope to achieve these outcomes by finding ways to improve service efficiency, reduce researcher burden, and proactively address researcher data needs.”

Participants will include researchers, pre- and post-award specialists, lab and project managers, librarians, research compliance specialists including IRB/HRPP, high-performance computing experts, research IT specialists or others who may work with or be impacted by research data management plans. Spots for the workshop are limited, so all interested parties will need to submit the registration request form.

For more information on this pilot project, see the Association of Research Libraries press release.