Five years ago, on 12 October 2020, the German federal and state governments jointly founded the association Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) e.V. in Hannover. More than 300 institutions are now members, and the association continues to grow. The members are united by a common vision: data as a shared good for excellent research, organised by the scientific community in Germany.
To celebrate the association’s 5th anniversary, we would like to take a brief journey through time in 5 pictures. The photos illustrate how NFDI has transformed throughout its development phase into a strong network.
Photo 1: 15 October 2020
Just three days after the association was founded, the first milestone was reached: the office in Karlsruhe was inaugurated and the first employees were able to move into the premises.
Previously, NFDI had used space at FIZ Karlsruhe, which, together with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), was entrusted with the tasks of the start-up phase.
The photo by Cynthia Ruf/KIT shows Sabine Brünger-Weilandt, Holger Hanselka, Eva Lübke, York Sure-Vetter and Frank Mentrup.
Today, the directorate and 18 employees work at the NFDI office.
Photo 2: 22 April 2021
The start of NFDI was supposed to be celebrated with a big ceremony, but the early start-up phase was heavily affected by the pandemic, so the celebrations were cancelled. Instead, there was a press conference in Berlin, which was streamed via the channels of the former BMBF. The screenshot of the broadcast on Twitter shows NFDI Director Prof. York Sure-Vetter and is symbolic of many more online events that were to come before the network was finally able to meet in person.
Photo 3: 22 September 2022
The Parliamentary Breakfast in Berlin was one of the first events that NFDI was able to hold in person. At that time, the consortia from the first two funding rounds had already been integrated into the association structure and the first four sections had just been established. At the Parliamentary Breakfast, entitled ‘Health, Climate, Economy: How Research Data Helps Drive Innovation,’ politicians learned about use cases, highlighting the opportunities offered by good research data management. Members of the Bundestag and their staff were in attendance.
Photo 4: 11 September 2023
Not only did the number of consortia and members grow in 2023, but the events also became increasingly larger. In September, the first in-person Members Assembly was held, followed immediately by the first Conference on Research Data Infrastructure (CoRDI). More than 600 people attended the event at KIT. The association had thus achieved its goal of reaching the research data community at large.
Photo 5: 23 October 2024
By 2024, all consortia had been successfully onboarded, the first NFDI-wide basic services had been developed, and the association’s major development phase had been completed – the perfect time to expand the network internationally. The topic of internationalisation gained momentum. EOSC and NFDI were to be even better networked, which is why the EOSCxNFDI event was held in Berlin. Almost 40 per cent of the participants came from other European countries. The exchange between various European players was particularly relevant in the context of setting up EOSC nodes, entry points for users into the EOSC network.
We are looking forward to the next five years and many new challenges. Thanks to all our members and supporters who have accompanied us on our journey so far!
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