Led by a dedicated organizing committee—Erwan Guillou, Thomas Jouneau, and Rachel Prost (Recherche Data Gouv), Jennifer Palethorpe (University of Nantes), Lucie Marie (Sciences Po Paris), as well as Frédérique Gros and Alena Lapatniova (Progedo)—the Curathon provided an opportunity to learn, exchange ideas, and innovate together in a friendly and collaborative atmosphere.

A Variety of Approaches

Compared with the previous edition, this year's Curathon featured a wider range of formats. This evolution placed greater emphasis on metadata quality, showcasing a rich diversity of approaches and content. Here is an overview of the initiatives:

• Marseille: Held in a focused and productive atmosphere at the Saint-Charles campus university library, the day combined an introduction to the Recherche Data Gouv ecosystem, a presentation of the Dat'AMU repository, and a researcher’s feedback on her experience. The event produced tangible outcomes: 2 curated datasets, 3 newly created collections, and 3 requests for laboratory support.
• Besançon BFC: For the Bourgogne–Franche-Comté team, the Curathon was first and foremost an opportunity for in-person exchanges between research data librarians who usually work far apart geographically. The session proved especially productive: 29 ORCID identifiers were added, Research Organization Registry (ROR) identifiers for institutions were finalized, 28 projects were created in the dedicated registry, and 73 datasets, including nine collections, were identified for linking to the regional institutional repository.
• EcoDoR (Montepellier): The EcoDoR edition focused on demystifying data curation by presenting current practices implemented by members of the network. With 19 participants, half of whom were newcomers, the day emphasized training through a collective demonstration, the use of Recherche Data Gouv's curation report template, and hands-on exercises using 3 fictional datasets deposited in the repository's sandbox environment. By the end of the day, participants were able to complete a curation report and had reflected on their own curation policies, including file formats and quality criteria.
• Poitiers: The Poitiers edition took the form of a mini-symposium bringing together 24 participants (17 on site and 7 online) around metadata quality tools. Eight tools were presented in workshop sessions: AMIS, Maggot, Nakala, Madbot, the Recherche Data Gouv catalogue, UCLR, elabFTW, and assist_moderation-Nkl. Each presentation highlighted the tool's objectives, scope, limitations, and potential synergies with other solutions. The role of artificial intelligence in metadata management emerged as a common theme throughout the discussions.
• Paris CDSP (Sciences Po): With around 40 participants from diverse backgrounds, this edition focused on awareness-raising and training. The morning plenary sessions covered CoreTrustSeal, the Centre for Socio-Political Data (CDSP) guides for data dissemination, the RésIn network, the Progedo catalogue, and the DataV tool. In the afternoon, three parallel workshops explored metadata standards, data anonymization, and data curation within Recherche Data Gouv, laying the foundation for the next editions with a stronger practical focus.

Curathons were also organized in Avignon, Grenoble, Lyon, Nancy, Nantes, and Strasbourg. While many organizers returned after taking part in the 2025 edition, new cities also joined the initiative, including La Rochelle, Poitiers, and Montpellier. Altogether, 150 participants received training, expanded their knowledge, practiced curation techniques, and exchanged ideas on this key aspect of research data management.

What's Next?

This second edition confirms the growing enthusiasm for Curathons and highlights the need for opportunities to come together and discuss research data documentation.
As Curathons gradually become recurring events, the role of the organizing committee is expected to evolve toward coordinating the various local initiatives.
Next year, the committee will continue supporting local organizers in setting up their Curathons. It will also place greater emphasis on communication in order to reach a broader audience, both among prospective organizers and participants.

See you next year to continue collaborating on new research data curation projects!

Call for Expressions of Interest

If you would like to:

• Join the organizing committee,
• Participate in Curathon 2027,
• Be contacted about the next Curathon,
• Share your ideas or feedback,

please contact: curathon-comite-organisation[at]groupes.renater.fr 

To stay informed about future Curathon activities, feel free to subscribe to the newsletter by emailing: curathon[at]groupes.renater.fr 

This catalog highlights France’s scientific heritage. It lists:

• Data produced or co-produced by researchers affiliated with a French institution.
• Data deposited in repositories managed by French institutions, regardless of the authors’ nationality.

Starting today, the catalog offers automated indexing of repositories identified as priorities. The list of repositories will be updated over time.

To facilitate your searches, the catalog uses artificial intelligence technologies:

• Semantic and multilingual search to formulate your queries naturally and find datasets, whether they are described in French or English.
• AI helps connect the terms in your search to the data descriptions, making exploration more fluid and intuitive.

The Recherche Data Gouv catalog was designed as a cross-disciplinary search layer, intentionally simple and lightweight. That is why it focuses solely on the general presentation of “datasets.”

It is not intended to replace existing discipline-specific platforms. Specific complexities (domain-specific vocabularies, highly specialized searches) remain managed by the original repositories.

Discover this tool designed to simplify the discovery and reuse of research data today!

Access to the catalog: https://catalogue.recherche.data.gouv.fr

Choosing an appropriate repository is a key factor in ensuring high-quality metadata, increasing data visibility, and enabling reuse. The list is not intended to be exhaustive but to provide reliable guidance: the absence of a repository does not imply that it is not trustworthy.

This new version is the result of extensive harmonization and standardization of the information describing already listed repositories. This work enables a clearer and more consistent display on the Recherche Data Gouv portal, with enriched information, particularly regarding repository sustainability and embargo conditions.

The evaluation criteria remain unchanged compared to the previous version of the methodological guidelines.

Several new thematic repositories have been added:

• Social Sciences and Humanities: Pangloss, dedicated to rare languages
• Astronomy and Astrophysics: Kinetic Database for Astrochemistry (KIDA) and the Centre de Données de Physique des Plasmas (CDPP)
• Biology: Image Data Resource (IDR) in cell biology and BioImage Archive in bioimaging

The list is intended to evolve over time. Research communities are encouraged to suggest repositories that could be included, in line with the criteria defined in the methodological note.

This collective effort was made possible thanks to the contributions of the dedicated working group, coordinated in particular by Cécile Arènes and Marie-Emilia Herbet.

The updated list and its methodology are available online on the Recherche Data Gouv website.

Interview avec l'équipe des administrateurs / curateurs de l'espace institutionnel de l'Université de Montpellier :

Quelles disciplines sont représentées par ces données principalement ?

De nombreuses disciplines sont représentées : sciences de la terre et de l'environnement ; biodiversité ; écologie ; sciences de l'agriculture ; sciences de la vie, de la santé et de la médecine ; ingénierie ; physique, systèmes ; sciences de l'Informatique ; chimie ; sciences sociales ; mathématiques.

Quel est le processus pour déposer des données ?  Pour créer une collection ?

Chaque déposant doit être authentifié via ses identifiants “shibboleth” de l'Université de Montpellier pour pouvoir déposer dans l'espace institutionnel de l'université. Chaque unité de recherche ayant déposé des jeux de données dans l'espace institutionnel dispose d'une collection. Les demandes de création de collection se font auprès de notre équipe de curation. L'équipe veille régulièrement à créer une collection si des jeux de données de l'unité sont identifiés.

Quelle curation est assurée sur l’espace ?

Chaque jeu de données déposé dans l'espace est relu par notre équipe de curation avant d'être retourné pour modifications éventuelles au déposant. Ce processus est appliqué à chaque nouvelle soumission.

 Y a t-il une articulation avec d’autres entrepôts ?

Oui, du fait de la présence d'unités multi-tutelles et dans le cadre de l'atelier EcoDoR et de l'organisation d'événements (curathon, etc.), l'espace s'articule avec les autres espaces institutionnels et instances Dataverse des partenaires de l'Université, tels que DataSuds, data.InDoRES, etc.

Avez-vous un jeu de données modèle ou recommandé comme exemple d’un dépôt “propre” ?

Nous proposons comme modèle ce jeu de données déposé dans la collection du Laboratoire de Mécanique et de Génie Civil.

Pour en savoir plus

Guichet contact de l’espace institutionnel : https://ecodor.libanswers.com/form?queue_id=3267
Lien vers l’espace institutionnel : https://entrepot.recherche.data.gouv.fr/dataverse/umontpellier 
L'atelier de la donnée Ecodor : https://atelier-ecodor.edu.umontpellier.fr

• The « Creating a Missing Dataset » prizes
• The « Creating the right conditions for reuse » prizes
• The « Promote interdisciplinarity » prizes
• The « The jury’s special prize »

These awards are open to all job categories and professions, and the jury reserves the right to decide on the number of awards per category. It will be chaired by Grégoire Rey, Director of the France Cohorts National Infrastructure and Research Engineer at Inserm.

Openned since the 27th of April, the applications can be submitted until the 23rd of June (12 noon Paris time). The prizes will be awarded in November, during the French « Assises Nationales des Données de la Recherche » in the University of Montpellier.

Applications for Open Science Free Research Software Awards and the Open Science Thesis Awards are open too.

See more and aplly

See also on Recherche Data Gouv:

2025 Open Science Awards winners: They have published their data in the Recherche Data Gouv repository!

To help researchers and data stewards identify suitable solutions for depositing, leveraging and making their multi-omics data FAIR, DoRANum and the French Institute of Bioinformatics (IFB) are publishing a new educational resource entitled ‘Data repositories suitable for multi-omics data’.

This guide provides an overview of data repositories suitable for this type of data, detailing their characteristics, access conditions and uses, to assist research teams in making informed choices.

Discover the resource ‘Data repositories suitable for multi-omics data’ on the DoRANum website (in french)

The hub is managed by four members of the LORD (Lille Open Research Data) data cluster management. However, the scopes are not entirely identical. Indeed, within the scope of the LORD data workshop, several institutional repositories coexist: those of IMT Nord Europe and UPHF, and those of the national research organisations (ONRs) active in the region (Inria, INRAE, CNRS).

It currently hosts 160 datasets comprising 2,034 files, as well as collections corresponding to 26 laboratories and 5 research projects.

Interview with Alicia León y Barella, head of the LORD data cluster management

Which disciplines are primarily represented by this data?

Just like the University of Lille, all disciplines are represented in Lillodata. However, there is a predominance of experimental or simulation data from the experimental sciences and engineering, which are likely less well covered by trusted thematic repositories. These disciplines account for roughly half of the datasets deposited in Lillodata. They relate more specifically to applied mathematics, materials physics, and engineering sciences (civil engineering, materials engineering – particularly textiles –, fluid mechanics, electronics and micro-nano-technologies).

What is the process for submitting data? For creating a collection?

Members of research units overseen by the University of Lille can log in to Lillodata and have the rights to submit a dataset.

To create collections, the four Lillodata administrators and a number of curators for spaces dedicated to laboratories are responsible for creating the collections. We create collections on request for research units, research teams, research projects, scientific journals, etc.

What curation is carried out on the platform?

We provide documentary and legal curation of datasets: adding metadata (notably author and affiliation), quality control of the submission, and checking the legal compliance of the submission (in the case of personal data, liaising with our DPO team where necessary). A curation report, adapted from that of Recherche Data Gouv, is systematically sent to the depositor upon completion of the deposit and prior to validation and publication online. We are sometimes under time pressure, as the deposit of a dataset may be linked to the publication of an article, in which case we must act swiftly so as not to delay the editorial process.

Is there any integration with other repositories?

As is the case everywhere, our units fall under the remit of several different bodies (other universities and the ONR). However, it is important for our unit directors to have access to a relatively comprehensive collection of datasets deposited on Recherche Data Gouv and produced by researchers affiliated with their unit (regardless of which body they are attached to). Consequently, after some trial and error and discussions with our regular partners (notably the teams managing the CNRS, UPHF and Inria portals), we have finally opted for an annual review, enabling us to link datasets affiliated with one of our units but deposited elsewhere, so as to make them visible on Lillodata and within the collections of our research units.

Do you have a model dataset or one you would recommend as an example of a ‘clean’ repository?

From a documentary (and scientific) perspective, I find the work of the ALGOMUS team, affiliated with the CRIStAL laboratory, particularly interesting; they work at the intersection of musicology and computer science.

The datasets bring together digital corpora dedicated to the algorithmic analysis of music from the perspective of digital humanities and computational musicology. They are based on musical corpora enriched with analytical annotations, structured metadata and various digital objects (scores, recordings, synchronised analyses), which make them particularly original from a documentary perspective.

The data is closely linked to the Dezrann platform, an environment for visualising and annotating musical corpora: the data deposited on Lillodata is partly encoded in formats specific to this platform, enabling synchronisation between scores, audio recordings and analytical annotations, and thus facilitating their scientific use.

Several other datasets are currently being finalised and will be published on Lillodata: at that point, we plan to give them specific prominence on the Recherche Data Gouv portal (what a teaser!)

Discover the Algomus collection: https://entrepot.recherche.data.gouv.fr/dataverse/cristal-algomus

URL for the Institutional Portal contact desk: lillodata@univ-lille.fr

URL for the institutional section: https://entrepot.recherche.data.gouv.fr/dataverse/lillodata/

Find out more about the LORD data workshop: https://lord.univ-lille.fr/

This resource is the first co-production of the INRAE Reference Centre and the DoRANum Resource Centre as part of the Recherche Data Gouv ecosystem. A PDF version is also available.

Data may be shared? Check out this chart to find out where and how to publish them.

The steering committee was renewed in early 2026. It was joined by three elected representatives from the members’ council:

• Fabien Borget, Aix-Marseille University (also elected chair of the Members’ Council)
• Christophe Calvin, CEA
• Cécile Swiatek, University of Paris Nanterre

Learn more about the steering committee

Discover the governance of Recherche Data Gouv

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).