A Look Back at EcoDoR Day on January 20, 2025

On Monday, January 20, the IRD, on the Agropolis campus, hosted the Montpellier EcoDoR data workshop for a study day bringing together data professionals from the Montpellier site: data librarians from the University of Montpellier’s SOAR (Open Science and Research Support) department, and representatives from the 11 site partners working on research data.

After coffee and croissants, followed by a welcome from our hosts—Jean-Christophe Desconnets—and a presentation of the event program by Laure Lefrançois, head of the SOAR department (UM Student Services), we got down to business: a brainstorming session to identify expectations and concerns, followed by answers to the questions raised.

On the lunch menu: canapés, petits fours, and greenhouses to top it all off! After the cold buffet, small groups toured the imposing glass-and-steel chapels, where African and Asian rice plants and wild coffee trees thrive in a lifelike tropical heat, capturing the interest of the day’s visitors.

The afternoon was devoted to a “world café”—a series of interactive workshops where participants could share best practices, questions, and suggestions on the topics being addressed by the EcoDoR workshop’s working groups: creating a one-stop shop for researchers, pooling training offerings on research data, support services for drafting DMPs (data management plans), and promoting our data ecosystem.

Participants in this first event certainly had no chance to get bored, and we are already working on organizing another seminar, this time dedicated to the community of researchers and faculty members. The event is scheduled to take place next spring, and we hope it will be just as successful.

More details will be posted here soon!