Digital Competence Centre for Practice-based Research

At HAS University of Applied Sciences, a number of professorships use sensor data. In their research, they regularly run into the problem that the data infrastructure does not offer sufficient possibilities to efficiently and effectively store the real-time sensor data from the various field labs and to make it broadly applicable for the lectorate research. This pilot focuses on describing and designing a workflow for sensor data and a metadata model so that the sensor data is suitable for reuse and applicable for different research questions.

In this pilot, Avans University of Applied Sciences will work with Virtual Research Environments (VRE) for the collection, storage, processing and collaboration of privacy-sensitive data within practice-based research. Specifically, Avans University will map out the requirements for this together with researchers, data stewards and legal experts. The aim is to develop a template for a data processing agreement (DPA). This pilot will also test two VREs, namely the SURF Research Cloud and anDREa infrastructure with the aim of finding a proof-of-concept for cloud-based solutions for privacy-sensitive data within practice-based research.

In this pilot, Leiden University of Applied Sciences will set up a workflow that helps researchers make research data accessible and available to third parties. Important here is how the university can optimally align central and decentralised research support and how the workflow can be embedded in existing practices and their RDM protocol.

This pilot aims to support teacher-researchers and lectors in applying Data Science within research programmes and minors. Data Science and Computational Science students will work with research data from the knowledge centres. To this end, Hogeschool Rotterdam will deploy the SURF service Jupyter Hub, allowing students to work on the research data without having to install anything. In this way, cloud computing will be introduced within the minors and professorships in a low-threshold manner. The pilot thus builds a bridge between education and research. In this pilot, Rotterdam University will explore both the classic application of Jupyter Hub by using this service for Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision education, for example, as well as more innovative application such as the use of Azure AI services.

Hogeschool Utrecht will work on a case study mapping the news coverage surrounding the war in Ukraine using an analysis on the Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT) 2.0 database. The GDELT 2.0 is an open database with data from news media and social media in more than 100 languages. In this pilot, we will realise to unlock and use GDELT 2 data in SURF Research Cloud. The aim is to implement SURF Research Cloud as a platform for data analysis in the projects resulting from the SPRONG Responsible AI. The intended result is a series of tutorials in which we explain and reproduce capabilities of data analysis on SURF Research Cloud. In doing so, the explicit aim is to arrive at an approach that can be deployed both within and outside the media theme area.

The lectorate Bewegen In en Om Scholen of Hogeschool Amsterdam collects data from Amsterdam primary school pupils to gain insight into their motor development. The database is periodically supplemented with new data from a third party. It is a continuous monitoring in which the database is constantly being expanded and from which potentially new research questions and insights arise. In this pilot, we will explore how to set up the data stream (including proof-of-concept) to be able to do trend analyses and report to cooperation partners such as the municipality of Amsterdam and the schools.

Within the discipline Agri, Food and Environment, it is not yet possible to add metadata to data collected during research at HAS University of Applied Sciences. In this pilot, HAS, together with three lectureships, WUR DCC and the Centre of Expertise Green core team RDM, will investigate which standards are usable and how they can be implemented.

In this pilot, Hanzehogeschool requests support in managing research data and a virtual research environment for a large multi-year study with children at different schools in the province of Groningen. The aim of the research programme is to provide the youngest generation of Groningen children growing up in relative poverty with the same opportunities as children in the rest of the Netherlands. This project uses and collects many types of data from different sources, including highly sensitive data (personal data, health, etc.) from external parties.

De Haagse Hogeschool will pilot the procedures for publishing research data in SURF Research Drive in DANS Easy. At the end of the pilot, De Haagse Hogeschool will have sufficient expertise to support its researchers in archiving research data for the longer term, preparing datasets for inclusion in a data archive and making data FAIR.

Fontys GreenTechLab is investigating the use of drones to collect images of fauna damage in fields and the automatic processing of these images based on machine learning. The ultimate goal is to generate a fully automated valuation report of fauna damage for valuation agencies from a drone image. In this pilot project, researchers and research supporters will work with SURF to set up a workflow to get the data streams from the drone to a research environment where the data analysis will take place.

Research Drive allows researchers to store and share research data during a research project. Saxion University of Applied Sciences, together with a number of professorships, will test a new functionality in Research Drive that makes it possible to add metadata to datasets (such as the date of creation, the creator and a description) and then automatically send the datasets including metadata to a repository so that the dataset can be archived or published. This makes a dataset findable and suitable for reuse. Saxion University of Applied Sciences will also test the associated work processes needed to set up this system properly and make it user-friendly.

The pilot project aims to provide researchers and professors with a simple solution to deal effectively with their data throughout the research cycle. The key elements are Research Drive as the storage environment and SURFsharekit as the data-publishing environment. The pilot focuses on uploading small datasets into SURFsharekit from Research Drive so that research data can be published. The pilot does not involve a technical link between Research Drive and SURFsharekit. The focus is on designing elaborated work processes that provide input for establishing the link between SURFsharekit and Research Drive.

In this pilot project, researchers and research support staff from Utrecht University of Applied Sciences will professionalise the data cycle and develop a VRE environment, based on the research project Healthier Toddler Mouths. This project concerns oral care in consultancies to prevent tooth decay in young children. It involves children's privacy-sensitive data where different parties can access the data for analysis. The pilot focuses on building a research environment and linking it to data automatically retrieved from the external cooperation partners.