News 01 November 2023

Researchers in South-Eastern Europe Especially Need Access and Networking

The first batch of collected user stories, delivered by the Workpackage 3 team, shows that researchers and other professionals in South-Eastern Europe especially need access and networking for their work.

Understanding Users

Understanding what future users of the Research Infrastructure need is key for the development of RESILIENCE, so that it can be guaranteed that the services that are going to be develop meet the needs of future users as much as possible. In previous months, the team led by the University of Münster did some qualitative research in this respect. It now published a first report with the results of interviews conducted with researchers, librarians and collection managers in South-Eastern Europe in the first half of 2023.

Needs

This first batch of user stories is presented in Deliverable D3.5. Via semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analyses an overview of the needs could be realized. This overview shows, that accessibility and networking are the most important needs of the respondents. Research data management and software/tools rank a good third and fourth place.

User Stories Catalogue, Batch 1.

A user story is a short description of what a user needs in order to achieve something. According to the deliverable D3.5, containing the first batch of collected user stories, the user stories related to the needs that were mentioned most are:

Accessibility (15% – 88 statements):

  • As a researcher, I want a wide range of access to digitised literature, so that the scope of my research is not reduced by a lack of travel options.
  • As a researcher, I want some kind of document issued by RESILIENCE, that allows me to access libraries and catalogues throughout Europe, so that I am not restricted in my research.

Networking/Mobility/Transnational Access (TNA) (14% – 80 statements):

  • As a researcher, I want to have a centralised register of researchers and their expertise, so I can contact people who can enrich my research.
  • As a researcher, I want to have a contact person at the place I am visiting, so I can get instructed on the use of libraries, catalogues etc

With the first batch of user stories, Workpackage 3 (Users) contributes a first crucial building block for a precise analysis of the needs of potential users. However, in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of user needs, it is necessary to organise further surveys at other locations in Europe. The results of these future surveys will be used to generate a comprehensive image of user needs.

More

More results can be found in the deliverable D3.5