1 May 2025

WDS is excited to announce the winners of the 2025 Data Stewardship Award! After careful consideration of all candidates, the review team has selected the following individuals for their outstanding contributions:   

Winner: Youhua Ran, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 

2nd Place: Micheal Arowolo, Xavier University of Louisiana, USA 

3rd Place: Bhaleka Persaud, University of Waterloo, Canada

We extend our gratitude to everyone who applied for the Data Stewardship Award, and special thanks to our team of reviewers for their time and expertise in evaluating candidates. 

The WDS International Policy Paper Series provides a review of country-specific policies related to the governance of scientific data repositories at the national level. The series aims to document these policies, foster global collaborations and, advance science for the common good. To support this mission, WDS is dedicated to maintaining and continually updating a comprehensive list of national policies pertaining to data repositories. This living document ensures that researchers and policymakers have access to the most current information available.

In addition to our documentation efforts, WDS will host periodic webinars featuring experts from around the world. These sessions offer unique perspectives on Open Science Policies and their impact on data repositories, helping stakeholders navigate the complex international policy landscape effectively.

By developing this series of policy papers, WDS aims to create avenues for sharing knowledge and enhancing global scientific collaboration around data repositories. We believe that promoting transparency and leveraging international expertise will ensure that science continues to work toward the common good.

The papers in this series are regularly updated with new and emerging information. We welcome your input on these documents, including textual updates, references, policy suggestions, and link corrections. Please contact us at wds-ipo@utk.edu with your contributions.

Visit the WDS website to learn more about the recently released papers and stay tuned for future publications.

On 10 April, we presented the inaugural session of the “WDS Webinar Series on International Repository-related Policies: Argentina and Colombia.” An expert panel discussed their unique perspectives on Open Science Policies and their impact on data repositories in their respective countries. 

Visit the Webinar Archive page to watch the recording and view the published slides.

Do not miss your chance to present your work at the top scientific conference on the frontiers of data in research: SciDataCon25!  

We invite you to submit poster proposals for the International Data Week's SciDataCon 2025: Data for Positive Change, happening from 13-16 October in Brisbane, Australia.  

Submission deadline: 23:59 AEST/12:59 UTC on Thursday, 15 May 2025 

To submit a poster, please sign up and create an account in the SciDataCon conference system.

The World Data System (WDS) Asia-Oceania Conference 2025 is set to take place in Beijing, China. The Asia-Oceania region plays an important role in multi-disciplinary data collection, storage, management, mining, stewardship, and even knowledge discovery in the world. WDS-led international conferences on the data-related activities in the A&O region were held in 2017, 2019, 2020 (online), and 2023. The WDS China Group, the WDS community of Japan, and other stakeholders in the A&O region are dedicated to establishing an open-data network in the A&O region through collaboration.

This event will be held in September of 2025, organized by the WDS China Group, hosted by the Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), CAS.

Important Dates

Registration: 1 April to 1 August 2025

Abstract and Exhibition Proposal Submission: 15 April to 15 June 2025

Event: 8-12 September 2025

The WDS Members’ Forum will take place leading up to IDW 2025 on Sunday, 12 October 2025 in Brisbane, Australia, from 13:00-17:00 AEST. This event is exclusive for WDS Members or by invitation. The forum will be hybrid, but we strongly encourage your physical attendance for networking and engagement. 

This is an opportunity for the WDS community to report on their specific developments, activities, and progress, as well as to discuss the strategic and organizational objectives of the WDS. The forum will consist of a Scientific and a Plenary Session, where members will have the opportunity to report on their activities, engage with other members, discuss membership issues, and provide feedback. The WDS Bylaws require that all WDS members participate in the forum with a report of their activities. 

We are calling all WDS members to submit their contributions for the forum. Please submit a three-to-five-minute video or oral presentation including your organization’s vision or main priorities for 2025-2027, opportunities and challenges in realizing this vision or priorities, and how WDS can assist in realizing these goals or addressing the issues. Membership participation helps WDS meet the four objectives in the updated Action Plan by showcasing their community engagements and sharing opportunities for broader involvement. 

Please email wds-ipo@utk.edu to submit your reports (video or oral presentation) and questions for the session. For more information, visit our website. The deadline for submissions is 24 September 2025.

Registration is free and required for participation in the WDS Members’ Forum

Have you registered for IDW 2025 yet? With a variety of registration options available, including full registrations, student, low-middle-income country, and single-day passes, there’s a choice for everyone. Don’t miss out, register before the early bird deadline to reap the savings.

Why attend?

Read more on the reasons to attend IDW 2025 here.

Click on the logos to learn more about our members, DataFirst and the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research.

This workshop presents the key findings from the FAIR Implementation Support Action conducted at repositories in the Western Balkans: The Data Archive for Social Sciences in Bosnia and Herzegovina (DASS-BiH), a WDS member, and four different universities at the University of Belgrade from Serbia. These institutions applied FAIR-IMPACT guidelines to enhance repository transparency, metadata exposure, and stakeholder trust, while facing similar regional challenges.

The workshop will showcase how the same tool was implemented across different disciplines—social sciences and chemistry—providing comparative insights on its effectiveness. Participants will gain practical knowledge on improving FAIR compliance and repository interoperability in diverse research fields.

Date: 8 May 2025

Time: 8:00-9:00 UTC

Open FDO Workshop

The Fair Digital Objects Forum (FDOF) will host a workshop on the challenges that researchers face when building an integrated data space across many disciplines and service centers in Norway. The event will facilitate data sharing and reuse to benefit researchers around the world. The country-wide approach to harmonization in Norway is an excellent case to discuss the challenges and the solutions taken.

Date: 19 May 2025 

Time:  13:00-15:00 UTC 

The IASSIST Conference committees are proud to announce that the full 2025 conference schedule is now available. On the OpenConf platform, attendees can create a personalized schedule and see the details of the various presentations and events. View the full conference schedule here. 

Hosted by the University of the West of England, the conference will engage in the past, present, and future of data services, including data management and technologies.

Make sure to visit WDS Scientific Committee Maggie Levenstein’s (ICPSR) session “How Are Data Archives Modernizing Their Platforms for Fairness and Sustainability” on Wed., 4 June at the 14:45-15:45 timeslot and again at the poster “Enhancing Research Data Usability Through Turbocurator: An AI-Driven Tool for Creating FAIR Metadata” right afterwards.  

Dates of Event: 3-6 June 2025

Location: Bristol, United Kingdom

The session proposal portal for the 2025 July Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Meeting is now open. ESIP staff encourage session proposers to include as much detail as possible in the proposal, while understanding that there will be time to fully design and update the session after acceptance. On 6 May at 14:00 EDT, an Open Office hour will be held to share session ideas with ESIP Staff. More information about the upcoming meeting can be found on the ESIP Community Calendar. 

Proposal Submission Deadline: 15 May 2025 by 23:59 PT

Notification of Acceptance: 29 May 2025

ESIP Event Date: 22-25 July 2025

The International Conference on Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Social Media Corpora for the Humanities brings together language-centered research on CMC and social media in linguistics, philologies, communication sciences, media, and social sciences with research questions from the fields of corpus and computational linguistics, language technology, text technology, and machine learning. 

Submission Deadline: 15 May 2025 

Event Date: 4–5 September 2025 

Location: Bayreuth, Germany 

UNESCO’s International Geoscience Program (IGCP) is inviting Expressions of Interest for research projects led by geoscientists based in African institutions. This initiative aligns with the current UNESCO and International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) priorities to strengthen geoscience research in Africa. In line with this plan, UNESCO and IUGS will support projects by region, starting with Africa.

Successful projects may receive up to 50,000 USD for an initial one-year period, with the possibility of renewal for up to four years. Learn more about applications and what the submission must include below.

Expression of Interest Deadline: 15 May 2025

The IASSIST Africa Regional Workshop 2025 has a specific focus on Data Management and its impact on development in Africa, with the theme of “Enhancing Data Management for promoting continuous growth and a Sustainable Future for Africa.” 

IASSIST welcomes research papers, posters, and related presentations focusing on the main theme, sub-themes, and themes not limited to the list of subjects.

Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 May 2025

Workshop Date: 22-24 October 2025

Location: Accra, Ghana

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is partnering with Lyrasis to pilot a Research Activity Identifier (RAiD) service for organizations in the United States. The National Science Foundation (NSF) support has helped SDSC develop North America's first RAiD registration authority and to set up the governance, agreements, and financial structure to create a sustainable service.

There is an interest form and more information on the two-year pilot project from Lyrasis, in case readers would like to join the community list and receive further updates.

If this email was forwarded to you, please consider subscribing below.