Experimental and theoretical scientists in the turbulence department at the MPI-DS in Göttingen produce a large variety of heterogeneous data and analyze it in a number of different environments. In an MPDL project, the open source research data management software CaosDB was enhanced to meet these needs and hopefully those of other research groups as well. We will show the results of this process: automated integration of data from metadata-rich raw HDF 5 files and a new API with language bindings for Octave, C++ and Julia. Additionally, the user documentation was overhauled, programming tutorials published and perfomance bottlenecks identified. We will also share insights about "soft" measures to increase the overall utility of semantic data management: practical guidelines for scientists to produce truly FAIR data and workshops to empower scientists to work with CaosDB
