‘Curathons’ 2026: a national day for research data curation

After the success of the first edition in 2025 and the many positive feedbacks, the ‘curathons’ (i.e. curation marathons) return in 2026. The next meeting will take place on 5 May 2026 and will again bring together people involved, from near and far, in the document curation of datasets: curators, research support staff, data repositories managers, members of data management clusters or depositing researchers wishing to improve the quality of the documentation of their datasets.

The curation near you

Programmed as part of the french ‘Printemps de la Donnée’, curathons are locally organised collaborative events that address curation in an open way, without being limited to a particular repository or theme, even if the Recherche Data Gouv repository is particularly present. They are coordinated by an organising committee bringing together members of the ‘Centre de Ressources Plateforme’ (CReP), data management clusters and repositories that are members of the french Recherche Data Gouv ecosystem. They promote the sharing of practices, the development of skills and collaboration between the various actors involved in the management and valorisation of research data, and improve the overall documentary quality of datasets.

A collective launch of the day

Novelty of the year 2026: As a large number of local ‘curathons’ are scheduled for Tuesday 5 May, a common launch time will be proposed. The day will start with a 30-minute exchange session connecting all sites via videoconferencing. This moment will officially launch the day, present the objectives of the curathons and give some common benchmarks before the start of the local sessions.

Join the new edition: There is still time!

The following sites have already announced their participation in 2026: Avignon, Besançon, Grenoble, La Rochelle, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Paris, Poitiers, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Strasbourg.

A webinar will be held on Thursday 26 March 2026 at 3.30 p.m. to give all relevant information

• Would you like to join the event by organising your own curathon? The participation form and the guide are online: https://linktr.ee/curathon.
• The team will be present at the annual seminar of the Research Data Gouv ecosystem in Grenoble from 30 March to 1 April where it will hold a stand.
• For any question or request: curathon-comite-organisation[at]groupes.renater.fr

For their involvement in the organising committee, thank you: Anne-Sophie Bage (INRAE), Frédérique Gros (Progedo), Erwan Guillou (Inist-CNRS), Thomas Jouneau (University of Lorraine), Alena Lapatniova (Progedo), Lucie Marie (SciencesPo), Jennifer Palethorpe (University of Nantes), Rachel Prost (University Marie & Louis Pasteur), Cathy Tang (INRAE).