MoveRDM (Movebank - Enhanced Research Data Management)

• Applicants: Oliver Kohl-Frey; Professor Dr. Martin Wikelski
• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572500727

With a steady growth in participating researchers, location records and animal-borne sensor measurements, Movebank is the leading international platform for animal movement data. To maintain this level of proficiency, further development of the possibilities of use with regards to adaptation to increased technical requirements, automation of curation processes and user-friendliness is paramount. The project "MoveRDM" therefore proposes expanding the existing research data management tools of Movebank in a future-oriented way. In doing so, the needs of the international community with regard to research planning and collection (Module A: Data planning and collection (DPC)), data analysis and publication of research software (Module B: MoveApps (MA)) as well as data publication and re-use (Module C: Movebank Data Repository (MDR)) are examined and catered to. Along these lines, the project addresses all aspects of the research data lifecycle. To support the data collection, a tool for creating field protocols will be implemented in a software solution and support for the creation of data management plans (DMPs) will be provided. Subsequently, we will examine how DMPs and field protocols can best be integrated into data management processes. MoveApps is a no-code platform in the Movebank environment for data analysis. Launched in 2021, it was met with great interest by the community, whereby the need for new functionalities such as the support of further programming languages became apparent. To improve the long-term usability of these software workflows published in the Movebank Data Repository, the project will develop automated metadata enrichment mechanisms to reference software packages in external sources. The processes for publishing workflows in the Movebank Data Repository will be optimised and the archiving of obsolete analysis modules be made possible. To automate the publication of the movement data and software workflows, the Application Programming Interface of the Movebank Data Repository will be extended. This will provide new options for searching and accessing data from the repository. Based on the user feedback, we will investigate how dynamic data collections available in Movebank can be provided with persistent identifiers and transferred to the repository. The project will develop solutions regarding the storage, processing, analysis and visualisation of the increasingly large data sets which Movebank faces. The solutions and results developed in this context will be transferred beyond Movebank to platforms and repositories of other scientific institutions. The knowledge and developments gained from the project will benefit and be shared with neighbouring RDM initiatives and projects (NFDI4Earth, NFDI4Biodiversity and GBIF).

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Participating Institution: Universität Konstanz; Kommunikations-, Informations-, Medienzentrum (KIM); Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensbiologie
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Stefan Hohenadel; Matthias Landwehr