Collaborative Data Management at the Research and Business Location Styria

In pandemic forecasting, simplified communication processes in administration, or in product development and research, better results are achieved where data-driven organisation is used: Data processing and the necessary data infrastructure are crucial for the efficiency and competitiveness of actors from science, industry and public administration.

Potential of data not yet fully exploited

"Both on an international level and in Styria, there are a number of initiatives dealing with efficient, secure and sustainable use of data. However, this happens very often in individual projects, but not across different projects“, says Stefanie Lindstaedt – Head of the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science (ISDS) at TU Graz and CEO of Know-Center GmbH. The result of this fragmentation is that similar problems are dealt with in parallel and valuable synergy effects fall by the wayside. These isolated solutions subsequently make it difficult to share data on a larger collaborative scale.

Project seeks answers to the most pressing questions

To tackle these problems, Stefanie Lindstaedt has initiated the IDE@S project (Innovative Data Environment @ Styria) together with Kurt Zatloukal, Head of the Diagnostic and Research Center for Molecular BioMedicine at the Medical University of Graz. Supported by the Province of Styria, researchers from Graz University of Technology, University of Graz, Medical University of Graz and FH JOANNEUM are developing a concept for the establishment of an efficient, secure and collaborative data infrastructure for Styria by February 2022.  "Styria has a tradition of excellent networking among key players in business, research and the public sector. With this initiative, we are once again taking a pioneering role and creating a reference model that facilitates the archiving, exchange and processing of large amounts of data and serves as a template for Austria and other innovative European regions," says Provincial Minister for business and research Barbara Eibinger-Miedl.

Facilitating international connections for Styria

For this purpose, the team of researchers is investigating the current state of data infrastructures in Styria: "We are analysing which resources are currently available: from technical infrastructure (such as whether the computing power in companies is sufficient for the respective data processing), to service and training offers for data-driven business, to the existing skills in the field of data science," says project coordinator Sarah Stryeck from TU Graz. The aim is to close the identified gaps by recommending courses of action with a view to the respective needs in the field of data science and to standardize data governance guidelines and adapt them to digital developments.

Invitation to participate in the project

Anyone interested in the topic in general and in participating in the project is invited to the kick-off event on February 3rd at 10 a.m., where more details about IDE@S will be presented. Due to coronavirus, the event will take place online.

Participation is free of charge, registration is obligatory under https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ides-kick-off-online-workshop-tickets-136284012149?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch until Wednesday morning.

IDE@S is anchored in the strategic project Digital TU Graz which focuses on the digital transformation in the fields of action research, teaching, administration and the third mission.