NFDI – National Research Data Infrastructure

Through the active participation of its members in currently ten of the 26 nationwide initiatives (as well as in the consortium network Base4NFDI) for the establishment of a National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), the U Bremen Research Alliance has the best prerequisites for implementing Research Data Management across disciplines and institutions, also in cooperation with other locations.

Initiative "NFDI"

The last pandemic showcases the importance of cooperative science: In order to understand the global implications of Covid-19 for physical and mental health, for the economy, the climate, and traffic, different disciplines have to join their research efforts.

In order to do so, scientists need access to data that is freely available and has as much consistency in formatting as possible. At the same time, it is essential to store data securely in order to prevent misuse or unwanted publication. The development of a German National Research Data Infrastructure, NFDI in short, is supposed to manage these tasks. Among their key tasks will be the systematic organization of data according to the FAIR data principle: They have to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. In 2016, the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructures recommended setting up such an infrastructure. The project was then initiated by the Joint Science Conference (GWK). Federal and state governments in Germany will invest up to 90 million Euro annually into the ambitious project over the course of ten years.

NFDI consortia in the U Bremen Research Alliance

Inside the rectangle: The Federal State of Bremen and the members of the cooperation network U Bremen Research Alliance. Outside the rectangle: NFDI consortia in which member institutions of the U Bremen Research Alliance are currently involved (June 2024). The consortia contribute to the development of the Data Train program and to the training. © U Bremen Research Alliance

In order to reach the ambitious goal of a common national infrastructure for research data of all disciplines, so-called consortia were formed in a first step. They are unions of universities, non-university research institutes, and other players. Next to the aforementioned securing and processing of research data, it is their task to connect and network with international initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud. Scientists from the U Bremen Research Alliance are collaborators in the following consortia of the three funding rounds:

The funded consortia in the first round of calls cover Biodiversity Research, Health Science, Engineering, and Social, Behavioral, Educational, and Economic Sciences.

The consortia are presented below.

The funded consortia in the second round of calls cover Earth System Science, Data Science, Computer Science, AI Research, Microbiology, and Materials Science/Material Engineering.

The consortia are presented below.

The funded consortia in the third round of calls covers Historical Sciences and Energy System Research.

The consortium is presented below.

Gruppenfote des Vernetzungstreffens der NFDI-Konsortien mit Bremer Beteiligung — © Jesko Lange / NFDI4Health

"Towards One NFDI": Local Networking Meeting of NFDI Consortia with Participation from Bremen

On May 20, 2022, the first networking meeting of the NFDI consortia in which institutions from Bremen are involved took place at Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen. For more than four hours, representatives of twelve of the 14 consortia of the 1^st, 2^nd and current application rounds with participation from Bremen exchanged information about their activities and possible cooperation, synergies and common challenges. The networking meeting was organized by NFDI4Biodiversity, NFDI4Health and the U Bremen Research Alliance. Here is an overview of the event.

We are looking forward to the next joint activities with you!

Projects of the first call:

NFDI4Biodiversity

NFDI4Biodiversity is a consortium under the umbrella of the National Research Data Infrastructure dedicated to the collaborative use of biodiversity and environmental data.

Involved members:

University of Bremen / MARUM, Speaker

Further institutions: AWI, GFBio e.V., ZMT

Contact person:

Prof. Dr. Frank Oliver Glöckner (Speaker; AWI, PANGAEA, University of Bremen / MARUM)

To the website of the consortium

NFDI4Health

NFDI4Health - the National Research Data Infrastructure for Personal Health Data - focuses on data generated in clinical, epidemiological and public health studies. The collection and analysis of these data on health and disease status and important factors influencing it are an essential component for the development of new therapies, comprehensive care approaches and preventive measures of a modern healthcare system.

Involved members:

BIPS, Co-Speaker

Further institutions: MEVIS, University of Bremen

Contact person:

Prof. Dr. Iris Pigeot (Co-Speaker; BIPS)

To the website of the consortium

NFDI4Ing

As part of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), the consortium aims to develop, disseminate, standardize, and provide methods and services to make engineering research data FAIR.

Involved members:

DFKI

Contact persons:

Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchner und Dr. Florian Cordes (Participants; DFKI)

To the website of the consortium

KonsortSWD

KonsortSWD builds up services for research with data in the social, behavioral, educational, and economic sciences as part of the NFDI.

Involved members:

University of Bremen, Co-Speaker

Contact person:

Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein (Co-Speaker; University of Bremen / SOCIUM / QUALISERVICE)

To the website of the consortium

Projects of the second call:

NFDI4DataScience

The vision of NFDI4DataScience (NFDI4DS) is to support all steps of the complex and interdisciplinary research data lifecycle, including collecting / creating, processing, analyzing, publishing, archiving, and reusing resources in the fields of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Involved members:

AWI

Contact person:

Prof. Dr. Frank Oliver Glöckner (Participant; AWI, PANGAEA, University of Bremen / MARUM)

To the website of the consortium

NFDI4Earth

NFDI4Earth is focused on the digital needs of Earth System Science. NFDI4Earth is a community-driven process designed to provide researchers with FAIR, coherent, and open access to all relevant Earth System Data, innovative Research Data Management, and Data Science methodologies.

Involved members:

AWI, Co-Speaker

Further institutions: University of Bremen / MARUM

Contact persons:

Prof. Dr. Stephan Frickenhaus (Co-Speaker AWI) and Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera (Participant; University of Bremen / MARUM)

To the website of the consortium

NFDI-MatWerk

National Research Data Infrastructure for Materials Science & Engineering: To implement a materials-specific data space, the NFDI-MatWerk aims to reduce technological barriers in MSE by developing generic software tools and an overarching data and information infrastructure.

Involved members:

IWT

Contact persons:

Dr. Matthias Steinbacher (Participant; IWT) and Dr. Norbert Riefler (WT)

To the website of the consortium

NFDI4Microbiota

The vision of the NFDI4Microbiota Consortium is that researchers in Microbiology (including Bacteriology, Virology, Protistology, Mycology, and Parasitology) can easily transform research data into a deep understanding of microbial species and their interactions at the molecular level. The mission of the NFDI4Microbiota Consortium is to be the central hub in Germany for supporting the Microbiology community with access to data, analytical services, data / metadata standards, and training.

Involved members:

MPIMM

Contact person:

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Amann (Participant; MPIMM)

To the website of the consortium

Projects of the third call:

NFDI4Energy

Digitalization processes, which affect technical, social, and societal aspects as well as the research process itself, also play a role in energy system research. The research heavily relies on model- and (co-)simulation-based approaches, often requiring the involvement of industry partners and society in the research. As a result, tracking data and models, due to the complexity of research projects, represents one of the current challenges.

Here, NFDI4Energy leverages existing research data management (RDM) approaches, which are being developed in other NFDI consortia, and adapts them to the needs of its own research community

Involved members:

University of Bremen

Contact person:

Dr. Torben Stührmann (Participant; University of Bremen)

To the website of the consortium

NFDI4Memory

NFDI4Memory brings together partners united by a common set of interests, needs, and aims related to the distinct challenges faced by those disciplines that use historical methods or that rely on data requiring historical contextualization.

Involved members:

DSM

Contact person:

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Vehlken (Participant; DSM)

To the website of the consortium

Base4NFDI

Base4NFDI is an alliance of consortia for the joint establishment of basic services for the NFDI. Base4NFDI integrates and establishes basic services as common, interoperable solutions. Existing services are adapted or extended to be usable for researchers from other disciplines.

To the website of the alliance