Getting practical skills in FAIR research data management and raising awareness of the European Open Science Cloud are important parts of the EOSC Gravity-funded MATSCI-NASU project.
In 2026, Kyiv Academic University (KAU) and the NASU RDM Competence Center at KAU developed a training program to help Ukrainian researchers move from a general understanding of Open Science and FAIR principles to practical research data management and data publication.
The programme has so far included two structured training cycles covering four webinar days.
The first cycle, held on 26–27 March 2026, introduced participants to Open Science, EOSC, FAIR data management and the DataverseUA repository. It covered Data Management Plans, metadata, persistent identifiers and the practical requirements for preparing research data for publication. Practical training was also provided for dataset authors and data curators working with DataverseUA.
Interest from the research community was substantial: 427 participants registered for the March training, and 277 received certificates after completing the programme and passing the assessment tests.
A second training cycle followed on 11–12 June 2026. The first day focused on FAIR principles and FAIR data, and its relationship to research data management, the research data lifecycle, EOSC Association, including the developing EOSC Federation. The second day moved from concepts to practice, with sessions on DataverseUA, metadata, dataset structure, licensing, persistent identifiers, publication and the responsibilities of researchers and data curators.
The June activities attracted more than 150 registered participants, while 70 participants received certificates after successfully completing the training and final assessment. These figures demonstrate continued demand for practical FAIR data and EOSC-related skills within the Ukrainian research community.
In the webinar “FAIR Data, the EOSC Federation and the DataverseUA Repository” on 8–9 October 2026 training activities are closely linked to the role of KAU and the NASU RDM Competence Center in MATSCI-NASU project, an EOSC Gravity pilot project implemented together with the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) and the Frantsevich Institute for Problems of Materials Science of the NAS of Ukraine. MATSCI-NASU is preparing the foundations for a future thematic EOSC Node of NASU for materials science. Within the project, KAU contributes expertise in FAIR research data and FAIR workflow management, metadata, data packaging, training and user support.
The next step is to extend the training approach from FAIR datasets towards FAIR computational workflows. In computational materials science, research results are often produced through sequences of interdependent calculations. Reproducibility therefore depends not only on access to final datasets, but also on information about input files, software and versions, parameters, computational environments, dependencies and provenance.
