In today’s data-rich research environment, good data management isn’t just about storage - it’s about enabling collaboration, reproducibility, and long-term value. 

This webinar introduces fundamental principles behind academic data management. We will describe the research data lifecycle, explore how data moves through typical research workflows, common challenges in handling it, and strategies for organising, documenting, and sharing data responsibly. Regardless of your research area, these foundational principles are becoming increasingly important, whether you're working with small spreadsheets or high-throughput instruments, and understanding them can help you build a more robust and transparent data flow for your projects.

Who is this course for?

This webinar is aimed at biological researchers who are working with, or managing data and those who need to create data management plans. No prior knowledge of bioinformatics is required but an understanding of biology and biological research would be an advantage.

This event is part of a webinar series organised by the STANDFLOW project, an initiative supported by EMBL’s Planetary biology Transversal Theme. STANDFLOW is about a collaborative effort towards creating a standardised data management workflow. The project primarily utilises imaging data derived from samples collected through the TREC (Traversing European Coastlines) and the Roscoff Culture Collection. For details on all topics covered in this series and registration information, please visit the following link: How to organise and share my imaging data?: Multimodal data management for marine biologists, and environmental scientists and imaging specialists

Outcomes

By the end of the webinar you will be able to:

• Describe the key stages of the data lifecycle and how they relate to research workflows
• Identify core principles of good data management (e.g. documentation, structure, sharing, and preservation)
• Apply practical strategies to improve the flow and handling of data in your own research context
• Reflect on the complexities of data management for large-scale international projects like TREC

DOI: 10.6019/TOL.Principles-DataManagement-w.2025.00001.1

This webinar took place on 14 May 2025. Please click the 'Watch video' button to view the recording.