Ten NFDI helpdesks are intensifying their collaboration with the Geo-Chem-Life Science Helpdesk Cluster in order to provide researchers with interdisciplinary support.
The Helpdesks of the NFDI Consortia have an important role: They are the first point of contact for researchers who need support in managing their research data – from the selection of suitable repositories to data protection issues.
Initially, the subject-specific helpdesks operated largely separately by discipline. In May 2024, ten representatives of geoscientific, chemical and life science NFDI consortia met in Bremen to discuss closer cooperation in user advice. The meeting marked the birth of what is now an active collaboration. A joint workflow for forwarding anonymised enquiries was established.
This dynamic and collaborative form of co-operation has now also been formally consolidated: In a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the ten consortia – DataPLANT, FAIRagro, GHGA, NFDI4Biodiversity, NFDI4BioImage, NFDI4Chem, NFDI4Earth, NFDI4Health, NFDI4Immuno and NFDI4Microbiota – have committed themselves to a long-term network. Under the title Geo-Chem-Life Science Helpdesk Cluster, an interdisciplinary support service for researchers with interdisciplinary concerns is being created.
The aim of the cluster is to make the initial contact between the scientific community and the NFDI more tailored, to pool resources efficiently and to make expertise from different disciplines flexibly accessible. Each consortium contributes human resources and nominates at least one person to actively participate in the network. Other consortia from neighbouring research areas are invited to join the cluster.
The text of the MoU can be found on Zenodo:
Memorandum of Understanding of NFDI consortia from Earth-, Chemical and Life Sciences to support a network called the Geo-Chem-Life Science Helpdesk Cluster, Version 1 (Bernard, L., Brück, M., Busse, C., Engel, J., Eufinger, J., Ewert, F., Fluck, J., Förstner, K., Fürst, J., Gauza, H., Getzlaff, K., Glöckner, F. O., Hunold, J., Koepler, O., Krooß, K., Lindstädt, B., McHardy, A. C., Mehrtens, H., Rey-Mazon, E., … Wetzker, C.), 2025. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15065070
This news article is an shortened version of an article by NFDI4Biodiversity. You can find the original with further information here: https://www.nfdi4biodiversity.org/de/news/helpdesk-cluster/
Other posts
Posts
Save the date: CoRDI 2027 – see you in Hannover!
The 3rd edition of the Conference on Research Data Infrastructure (CoRDI) will take place from 5 to 7 October 2027 at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH). CoRDI 2027 is being organised by the association German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in cooperation with the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and LUH.
Minister Petra Olschowski visits the NFDI
How does NFDI contribute to ensuring that research data can be used sustainably, thereby facilitating new insights and innovations? These and other questions were the focus of the visit by Petra Olschowski, Minister for Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, to the office of the NFDI association in Karlsruhe on 18 August.
GWK Approves Continued Federal and State Funding for NFDI Starting in 2029
At its meeting on July 10, the Joint Science Conference (GWK) adopted a new federal-state agreement (BLV) for the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). This agreement defines the funding and future structure of NFDI starting in 2029. The federal and state governments intend to continue funding NFDI with up to 98.7 million euros per year from 2029 to 2038.
Recent Comments