Love Data Week 2026 - Where's the Data?
The Love Data Week is an annual international week of action around the topics of research data and research data management (RDM).
From 9 to 13 February 2026 you can once again look forward to many interesting events.
The Open Science team at Freiberg University Library will once again be taking part this year with three coffee lectures (15 - 20 minute presentations followed by a Q&A session).
When: 11 a.m. each time
Where: BigBlueButton
Our programme
Monday, 9 February
Care for your data! Storage, backup and long-term archiving briefly explained
Hard drive, cloud, backup, archive - many things sound like data security, but they don't mean the same thing. This Coffee Lecture provides a compact overview of how research data can be properly stored, backed up and archived for the long term. Using typical everyday situations from research practice, risks are visualised and key differences are explained in an understandable way. The lecture is aimed at researchers at all career levels and shows in a practical way what they can do themselves to avoid data loss and make their research data usable in the long term - not least against the background that the long-term archiving of research data is now required by many funding bodies.
Lecture: Dr Stefanie Nagel (University Library, Open Science Department)
Tuesday, 10 February
FAIR in practice: Research data management with elabFTW - A hands-on tutorial
Structured research data management (RDM) is essential for reproducible and sustainable science. This hands-on tutorial shows how the FAIR principles can be practically implemented with the electronic laboratory notebook elabFTW.
Before a digital system such as elabFTW can be successfully introduced, basic standardisation is essential. The presentation shows how uniform naming conventions, consistent folder structures and standardised work processes form the basis for a functioning RDM. Only through these pre-defined standards can the full potential of an electronic laboratory notebook be utilised.
The example of scatter tests is used to demonstrate how the interconnection of the electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) and inventory management system (ELIM) enables virtually seamless documentation of the entire data life cycle. This end-to-end link - from material selection to experimental execution and archiving - creates a transparent data history that confirms the integrity and traceability of the research data.
Presentation: Richard Neubert (Institute of Physical Chemistry)
Wednesday, 11 February
Manage research data, secure funding: DMP for externally funded projects
Funding bodies are increasingly demanding transparent concepts for handling research data - often in the form of a data management plan (DMP). However, a DMP not only serves to fulfil formal requirements, but can also be a valuable tool for your own project planning. This Coffee Lecture provides a compact overview of why DMPs are playing an increasingly important role in externally funded projects, what content is typically expected and what tools are available to support this. The aim is to provide confidence in dealing with DMP requirements and to demonstrate the practical benefits of DMPs for your own research project.
Presentation: Dr Stefanie Nagel (University Library, Open Science Department)
You are also welcome to take advantage of the events offered by other universities and initiatives (including NFDIs), which are often held online.
Event overview for Love Data Week 2026
We will be happy to answer any questions you may have: openscience [at] ub [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de (opencience[at]ub[dot]tu-freiberg[dot]de)
