Abstract: An increased interest in open data and updated federal data management and sharing requirements provided collaborators from the State University of New York, an opportunity to investigate research data management infrastructure system-wide. An environmental scan conducted in Spring 2023 by a group of multi-campus representatives demonstrated: Campuses were exploring and needed recommendations, models and frameworks for research data management to share with campus research and other administrative leaders as stand-alone efforts. These recommendations would present a strategic rather than reactionary approach to campus plans for data management. System administration had an opportunity to share roles and responsibilities for implementing models or frameworks for research data management that created a best practices-aligned approach across the system. Campuses were looking to build collaborative data communities with representatives from information technology, library, office/division of research, sponsored programs, institutional research board, and data service providers. In Fall 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated a new, multi-stakeholder project on research data resulting in the creation of the Research Data Framework (RDaF). In response to the needs outlined in the environmental scan, collaborators from SUNY investigated application of RDaF to inform their efforts. The RDaF could provide System stakeholders with a structured approach to develop a customizable strategy for the management of research data. This structured, strategic, comprehensive approach serves as the basis for envisioning research data management across campuses and across the system. Panelists will discuss their work on prototyping an actionable implementation of the RDaF framework through 1) the creation of a graph model based on the framework and 2) related prototype tool. The goal of the graph model and tool is to help system campuses evaluate and build their institutional capacity in research data management through scorecard development and interactive journey mapping. Use of the same foundational framework increases the opportunity for interoperability and knowledge sharing within the university system. The project also serves as a testbed for RDaF in a university system. The prototype tool is built on open technical infrastructure for widespread sharing, reuse, and adoption by other institutions. It also aims to help expose incremental steps towards research data management, making it easier for institutions with fewer resources to engage without it being an all-or-nothing proposition. The panel presentation connects with this year's RDAP Summit 2024 theme Bridging Boundaries: Interoperability in the Data Community by highlighting institutional and discipline boundary spanning teams using shared frameworks as boundary objects. [cid:image001.png@01DB4A26.9B42A390] Catherine Stollar Peters, Ph.D. (she/her) Director of Research Data Strategy Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development The State University of New York H. Carl McCall SUNY Building Albany, New York 12246 Catherine.StollarPeters@suny.edu<mailto:Catherine.StollarPeters@suny.edu> Be a part of Generation SUNY [cid:image002.png@01DB4A26.9B42A390]<https://www.suny.edu/impact/research/>[cid:image003.jpg@01DB4A26.9B42A390]<https://www.facebook.com/generationsuny>[cid:image004.png@01DB4A26.9B42A390]<https://www.youtube.com/generationsuny>[cid:image005.png@01DB4A26.9B42A390]<https://www.linkedin.com/school/state-university-of-new-york/>[cid:image006.png@01DB4A26.9B42A390]<https://www.instagram.com/SUNY/> https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3810-1881