The Global Impact of the RDA | RDA P25 Day 2 Highlights

Designed to showcase the multifaceted impact and outputs of the Research Data Alliance, the ‘Global Impact of the Research Data Alliance’ session began with an introduction by RDA Secretary General, Hilary Hanahoe. Hilary emphasised the bottom-up, global, collaborative nature of the RDA, which produces outputs that address data-sharing challenges, are easy to adopt and implement, and are truly global.

In 2024, RDA launched the ‘The Sarah Jones Award for exceptional contribution to fostering collaboration in Open Science‘ in memory of esteemed RDA community member Sarah Jones.  

To announce the opening of nominations for the next edition of the Sarah Jones Award, last year’s winner, Aleksandra Lazic, shared the opportunities that the award has given her over the past year. In 2020 Aleksandra co-founded REPOPSI: an open repository for psychology scales tests and other instruments. Project funding allowed her to make important developments for the updates of the repository, and in 2024 she was awarded the Sarah Jones Award to recognise this important work. Since receiving the award, Aleksandra has given interviews to GEANT on her work, been invited to speak at Open Research Week, and has written an article in Nature, amongst other opportunities. 

CJ Woodford opened the session with an overview of the GORC model’s origins and evolution. The model, which defines the essential elements of a research commons through its typology of “hexagons” (white for human elements, blue for infrastructure), was formally accepted as an RDA Recommendation in 2024.

As adoption spread internationally, it became clear that deeper work was needed to support practical implementation. This led to the creation of the GORC International Implementations Working Group (WG), complemented by domain-specific sister groups such as the Health Data GORC WG.

Andrew Treloar presented a series of compelling use cases illustrating how organisations are using the GORC model to describe, align, and enhance their operations:

From Japan, Mikiko Tanifuji shared some key takeaways from the Loretz workshop and her own experiences on applying the GORC model in an international context. She emphasised its value in establishing a shared vocabulary and a blueprint for data governance, noting that the international endorsement gives the model credibility and helps build trust across scientific communities.

During a panel moderated by Hilary Hanahoe, the speakers reflected on these lessons from the Lorentz Workshop and the road ahead:

Andrew Treloar predicted that “we’ll see uses of the GORC model we never anticipated,” underscoring its flexibility as research infrastructures evolve.