mTeSS-X: Scaling the TeSS for federated training portals across international research infrastructures
Reed, Phil; Knodel, Oliver; Voigt, Martin; Bacall, Finn; Andrabi, Munazah; Rioja, Kenneth; Juckeland, Guido; Goble, Carole
- Publisher
- Zenodo
- Language
- en
Abstract
This poster was presented as part of the Careers and Skills for Data-driven Research (CaSDaR) Townhall Launch event on the 18th September 2025. Abstract: As researchers increasingly rely on complex, data-driven methods, there is an urgent need for robust, interoperable infrastructure to support the organisation, discovery, and reuse of training resources, which also motivates use of RDM infrastructures. The mTeSS-X Project (Multi-space Training e-Support System with eXchange https://elixirtess.github.io/mTeSS-X) overcomes the fragmentation of training resources across Research Infrastructures (RIs) and the European Science Clusters. The project aims to enhance existing TeSS-based training registries or catalogues like ELIXIR TeSS (life sciences) and PaN-Training (photon and neutron) by building an aggregator (TeSSHub) for these and similar platforms. Designed to be flexible and community-driven, mTeSS-X enables institutions and research infrastructures to operate autonomous training registries that can exchange metadata across a shared, standards-compliant ecosystem. The project addresses the challenge to enrich metadata and align with best practices for metadata quality [1] and contributes to the fulfilment of the latest data strategies from our communities [2, 3]. Each deployed mTeSS-X instance is going to support multiple , self-contained tenants that support local customization while adhering to common interoperability protocols. Tenants are capable of harvesting and enriching metadata from internal or external sources and can share selected content with other instances or aggregators. This federated model supports the FAIR principles [4] by decentralising data stewardship while enabling global findability and reuse. References[1] Sansone, S.-A., et al. (2019). FAIRsharing as a community approach to standards, repositories and policies. Nature Biotechnology, 37(4), 358–367. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0080-8[2] Martin CS, Smith A and ELIXIR Partners. ELIXIR International Strategy. F1000Research 2019, 8(ELIXIR):1583. https://doi.org/10.7490/f1000research.1117388.1[3] GÖTZ, Andy, et al. LEAPS data strategy. The European Physical Journal Plus, 2023, 138. Jg., Nr. 7, S. 617. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04189-6[4] Wilkinson, M. D., et al. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship.Scientific Data, 3, 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18
Full text
mTeSS-X: A Federated, FAIR-Aligned Platform for Distributed Management and Exchange of Training Resources Oliver Knodel, Martin Voigt, Munazah Andrabi, Finn Bacall, Phil Reed, Kenneth Rioja, Guido Juckeland and Carole Goble Description ELIXIR’s open-source Training e-Support System (TeSS) provides a central platform for accessing training materials and events in life science disciplines. While widely adopted, TeSS currently lacks support for content sharing between independent instances. The OSCARS project mTeSS-X enhances TeSS by enabling metadata exchange and shared content across instances through “spaces”—self-managed community catalogues within a central “hub”. This fosters collaboration and integration across research infrastructures, creating a more connected training ecosystem. ■While widely adopted in a diversity of science clusters TeSS currently lacks support for content sharing between independent TeSSinstances. ■Catalogues supported by TeSS are currently: ○Completely independant ○Operate as siloed systems ○Do not support content exchange ○Lack shared metadata ■No support for cross-discipline training resource exchange ■Duplication of operational effort across platforms ■ELIXIR TeSS Life Science training – tess.elixir-europe.org ■CERN's High Energy Physics training – training.cern.ch ■Photon and Neutron (PaN) training – pan-training.eu ■Digital Research Skills Australasia – dresa.org.au ■Taxila Open science training in the Netherlands – taxila.nl ■SciLifeLab – training.scilifelab.se Training catalogues based on TeSS Challenge: Independent Fragmented Training Portals ■Catalogues pooled into a shared TeSS instance supporting distinct community-specific “views” or “spaces” with: ○Unique branding and identity ○Targeted content selection ■Shared catalogue management Join the mTeSS-X Community The mTeSS-X Club is an open community to help its users and gather feedback for continuous development of the mTeSS-X. ■Bi-weekly Zoom meetings ■Quarterly focus group meetings ■Slack channel: #tess-club (elixir-europe.slack.com) ■Improved Findability & Accessibility: Federated catalogue system enables unified discovery across disciplines ■Increased Reusability: Content can be reused across domains and portals, promoting FAIR training principles ■Enhanced Sustainability: Reduced duplication and operational overhead through shared infrastructure ■Scalability: Framework supports future inclusion of more science clusters, communities, and RIs Scientific Impact mTeSS: Multi-space catalogue TeSS-X: Exchange between catalogues ■Automatic exchange of nominated content between the spaces in a TeSS hub and TeSS instances ■Done via a dedicated interface for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH) mTeSS-X Project
