DRI Welcomes Daniel Bangert as National Open Research Coordinator

Dr Daniel Banger has joined the DRI team in the role of National Open Research Coordinator. In this role he works with the National Open Research Forum (NORF) on the development and delivery of a National Action Plan for the implementation of open research across Ireland.

In its first phase, the National Open Research Forum prepared the National Framework on the Transition to an Open Research Environment, launched by the Government of Ireland in July 2019. The second phase of NORF will focus on developing a National Action Plan that sets concrete objectives and indicators to support and measure progress in the transition to open research. The new NORF structure for 2020-2022 includes a Steering Group, Funders Forum and a series of Working Groups aligned with the five strategic areas of the National Framework: open access to research publications; enabling FAIR research data; infrastructures for access to and preservation of research; skills and competencies; and incentives and rewards. The Working Groups will be launched at a kickoff meeting later in October 2020.

"The creation of this new role marks an important and significant step in Ireland's transition to Open Research, and the Digital Repository of Ireland is very pleased to both welcome and support Dr Bangert as he takes up this post. Daniel brings expertise and a wide range of experience across the research and research support sectors, and makes an excellent addition to the DRI team and to the National Open Research Forum," said Dr Natalie Harrower, Director of the DRI and NORF Steering Group member.

Dr Bangert comes to us with a background in supporting open research in the context of European projects and academic libraries. He has worked in Germany and Australia as a librarian and researcher, and has a strong interest in community-building to facilitate open research. Prior to his appointment at the DRI, he was a Scientific Manager at the Göttingen State and University Library, University of Göttingen, contributing to European projects related to open science and research data, including the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Europe and FAIRsFAIR. His work with the RDA community included coordinating RDA Europe’s network of national nodes. Previously he worked at UNSW Sydney supporting institutional open access and research data services in roles covering data librarianship, repository services and scholarly communications.

Dr Bangert commented on his appointment:

I'm delighted to be contributing to the next phase of Ireland's open research agenda. By bringing together experts from across the sector, the Irish National Open Research Forum (NORF) is well placed to set and enact a coordinated approach to policy and culture change. I look forward to working with the NORF and the Irish research community to foster open research practices and deliver a National Action Plan to implement open research across Ireland.

The National Open Research Forum was established in 2017 by Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, who continue to support the Forum and the new Coordinator role.

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