NEWS

News about NFDI

Stay up to date with our monthly NFDI newsletter in German and English. Send us a mail with “Subscribe” in the subject line to newsletter-join[at]lists.nfdi.de to subscribe.

First Success Stories now online

In order to make the NFDI more tangible for external visitors, the office has collected examples of the consortia's work - success stories - over the past few months. You can now view the first instalment of these success stories here. From digital twins for...

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Love Data Week: 12.–16.2.2024

The Love Data Week will take place from February 12 to 16, 2024 under the motto “My Kind of Data”. Numerous national and international organizations are offering exciting events in various formats such as coffee lectures, training courses, podcasts and information events online and in person. NFDI is also taking part again!

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The NFDI annual review 2023

More consortia (26), more members (279) and more face-to-face events: 2023 was a year of growth for NFDI. Thanks to new formats, the research data community has become even better connected. Moreover, the first three NFDI-wide services were launched.

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CoRDI 2023 – 5 conference highlights

Around 700 participants attended the first edition of the Conference on Research Data Infrastructure (CoRDI) at the Campus South of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) from 12 to 14 September. We have summarized five highlights of the conference.

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Public evening lecture @CoRDI: Julia Janssen – Behind the Click (english)

We would like to invite you to look behind the surface of the online world with us. Under the title “Behind the Click”, Dutch artist and researcher Julia Janssen will visually explore topics such as Artificial Intelligence, the bias of algorithms and data profiling. The public evening lecture will take place as part of the first Conference on Research Data Infrastructure (CoRDI) on 12 September at 7.30 pm in the KIT Audimax.

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Funding of new NFDI Basic Services for Persistent Identifiers and Terminologies

The development of the NFDI portfolio for basic services is progressing with two further projects. The Consortia Assembly (KV) of the NFDI Association decided in its meeting on 7 July to fund two basic service applications.
In a one-year initialisation phase, a service for the NFDI-wide provision of persistent identifiers (such as DOI) as well as a service to support the description of data through uniform terminologies will be funded.

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IAM4NFDI: Identity and access management starts path to NFDI-wide basic service

On 31 March, the consortia assembly of the NFDI Association unanimously approved the funding of the basic service application “Identity and Access Management for the German National Research Data Infrastructure (IAM4NFDI)” by the collaborative joint project Base4NFDI.
This is intended to create the conditions for users from different disciplines, consortia and research institutions to be able to register for services and use them.

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Task Force Evaluation and Reporting publishes white paper as basis for interim reports of the consortia

The NFDI Task Force for Evaluation and Reporting (formerly the Task Force Monitoring) is working on the preparation of the interim reports of the consortia and the structural evaluation of NFDI. For this purpose, members of the task force wrote the white paper “Interim Report Reference”. The paper creates a basis for the consortia’s interim reports to the German Research Foundation (DFG) through jointly agreed definitions of cross-consortium topics.

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Conference on Research Data Infrastructure (CoRDI): Call for Papers published

Research data form the basis for knowledge and innovation throughout all scientific disciplines. They play a fundamental role in the progress of our society. The key to using these data treasures is an effective infrastructure. With the first edition of the Conference on Research Data Infrastructure from 12 to 14 September 2023, the Association German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is initiating a conference that will focus on establishing interdisciplinary research data management (RDM). The Call for Papers is online now.

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Love Data Week 2023: Campaign week for a loving interaction with data

Research and data simply belong together. Extensive data sets provide the basis for understanding interrelationships and promoting new insights. However, storing data securely and describing it in a comprehensible way can be challenging. Why it is worthwhile nonetheless, how sustainable research data management works and what tips and tricks researchers can use will be shown during the “Love Data Week” from 13 to 17 February 2023. German-language initiatives and advice centres on research data management will offer an extensive programme during the international campaign week around Valentine’s Day.

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The NFDI Year in Review 2022: Highlights and Changes

2022 brought expansion, further development and strengthening for NFDI. In the second year of the association, the first four sections took off, the consortia successfully launched Base4NFDI, the third-party funded project Data Literacy started and NFDI formed connections with other relevant actors. Overall, a very positive balance can be drawn. We present the biggest highlights and cuts of the NFDI year 2022 here.

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Connecting the communities at the first EOSC Tripartite Event in Germany

The first EOSC-A Tripartite Event in Germany was hosted by the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) on 24 November 2022 in Karlsruhe. The event was designed to strengthen and broaden the links between the NFDI and EOSC. It was organized as a hybrid event with contributions online and a panel discussion in Karlsruhe. The audience could join the event via livestream.

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Making research data FAIR for business and science

In order to fully exploit the potential of data, trust between the various actors is needed as well as practicable technical and legal requirements. Representatives of the Association German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI) had an open exchange on this topic on 20 September.

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Review: Material of the NFDI Satellite Event @JCDL2022

NFDI offered its own Satellite Event at the Joint Conference of Digital Libraries (JCDL) 2022 on 23 June. A total of five groups from different consortia organised workshops on the topic of research data management. The event was rounded off by a panel discussion on “Everything FAIR and Open? Restrictions on data publications” and a keynote speech by NFDI Director Prof. Dr. York Sure-Vetter.

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NFDI comments on the EU Open Data draft

The European Commission has presented a draft implementing regulation regarding the availability of public datasets. As part of a feedback process, the sections Ethical, Legal & Social Aspects (ELSA), Common Infrastructures (infra) and (Meta)data, Terminologies and Provenance (meta) commented on the EU draft. The statement is the first that several sections have jointly drafted.

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NFDI Satellite Event @Joint Conference of Digital Libraries 2022

We invite you to the virtual NFDI Satellite Event at the Joint Conference of Digital Libraries (JCDL) 2022 on 23 June 2022.
The JCDL 2022 will bring together researchers and practitioners from the research data and the digital libraries communities. Different consortia give an insight into their work and show challenges and solutions.

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One year FAIR Data Spaces

The project FAIR Data Spaces celebrates its first anniversary this week. The project application was submitted to the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) at the beginning of April last year and the funding already started on 17 May 2021. Since then, the FAIR Data Spaces community has been built up and the first milestones have been reached together.

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NFDI publishes statement on the EU Data Act

The Data Act of the European Union is to regulate the accessibility of data in the future. As part of a feedback procedure, the ELSA (Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects) section in the NFDI association has submitted an opinion on the draft law. This statement at EU level is the first of an NFDI section.

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New FAIR Data Spaces community newsletter published

The community newsletter kicks off with a special edition containing information about our second FAIR Data Spaces project workshop on 15 March 2022. Our workshop was part of the BMBF event “Leitbild einer fairen Datenökonomie in Deutschland und Europa” (Model of a fair data economy in Germany and Europe), organised by Fraunhofer-Verbund IUK-Technologie and under the patronage of German Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger.

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Chair of the Consortia Assembly elected

At the Consortium Assembly on 1 April 2022, the speakers of the consortia unanimously elected a new chair for the association body. Prof. Dr. Andreas Witt (Text+) replaces Prof. Dr. Christoph Steinbeck (NFDI4Chem) as chairman, Dr. Dirk von Suchodoletz (DataPLANT) was re-elected as deputy chairman.

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Speakers elected for three sections

The work in the sections started. This week and last week, the sections Common Infrastructures (section-infra), Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects (section-ELSA) and (Meta)data, Terminologies and Provenance (section-metadata) elected their spokespersons and deputies in their first official meetings.

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NFDI supports Saving Ukrainian Culture Heritage Online (SUCHO)

The war in Ukraine is causing terrible destruction. Every day, digital data treasures of Ukrainian scientists and cultural workers are lost forever. NFDI wants to help preserve these data. We have made direct contact with the organisers of SUCHO (Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online) and enquired about current needs. At the moment helping hands and especially skilled web experts are needed.

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NFDI consortia publish statement on basic services

At the Consortia Assembly of the Association German National Research Data Infrastructure on 14 January, the consortia represented in it approved the publication of a collective statement on the topic of basic services without any dissenting votes. Read the published statement here.

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DFG publishes timetable for basic service consortia

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has published a timetable for the decision-making process for funding basic services in the German National Research Data Infrastructure.
The final decision on funding for basic service consortia will be made by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) in November 2022.

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Members elected for Board of Trustees

Representatives for the member institutions of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) e.V. met today, Wednesday 10 November, in a digital meeting. At the virtual Members Assembly, three scientific members were elected to the Board of Trustees for a four-year term.

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GWK decides on funding for the NFDI Directorate

The directorate of the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) e.V. association will be funded by the federal and state governments with a sum of 17.5 million euros from 2022 to 2028. The decision on funding was made by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) at its meeting on 22 October.

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All four section concepts published

At the beginning of October, the first four sections were established in the association. In the meantime, all of them have published their section concepts.
You can find all four concepts on our zenodo community page.

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Ten new NFDI consortia take off

Funding for ten more NFDI consortia began at the beginning of October. The decision had already been made by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) on 2 July. The GWK followed the recommendation of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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First Parliamentary Lunch

Members of the German Parliament (Bundestag) and their employees had the opportunity on Wednesday, 16 June, to learn about the major challenges in research data management as well as about solution strategies through NFDI. The association presented itself during a virtual parliamentary lunch.

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Start of the FAIR Data Spaces project

The FAIR Data Spaces project started in May 2021. It is planned for three years and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF. In this project, the federated safe data infrastructure Gaia-X and the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) are developing a joint cloud-based data space for industry and research.

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Establishment of first sections

In several strategy workshops together with the consortia of the first round, four sections were identified. These sections will be prioritised and established in the National Research Data Infrastructure: (Meta)data, Terminologies and Provenance; Common Infrastructures; Training & Education; and Ethical & Legal Aspects. In order to make these concepts public at an early stage and provide an opportunity for feedback, an overview of the abstracts is provided in a shared document.

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First ToolTalk on 8 September

At the NFDI ToolsTalk, scientists report on tools that are intended to make effective research data management easier. The consortia provide insights into their work and the development of innovative services and tools. The first ToolsTalk on the topic “DataPLANT – Tools and Services to structure the Data Jungle” is on 8 September.

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