Establishing a National Research Data Infrastructure – NFDI
What Is the NFDI?
The aim of the national research data infrastructure (NFDI) is to systematically manage scientific and research data, provide long-term data storage, backup and accessibility, and integrate the data both nationally and internationally. The NFDI will bring multiple stakeholders together in a coordinated network of consortia tasked with providing science-driven data services to research communities.
Founding of the NFDI
In 2016, the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructures proposed to establish a national research data infrastructure.
In November 2018, the German federal and state governments decided to set up this infrastructure.
Between 2019 and 2028, up to 90 million euros will be provided for the initiative each year. Most of the funding is earmarked for up to 30 consortia in three separate calls at various points. The consortia are alliances of universities, non-university and government-funded research institutions, academies, and other publicly funded information infrastructure organizations.
In May 2019, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology announced the Joint Science Conference’s decision to locate the NFDI directorate in Karlsruhe.
Corsortia Selected to Receive Funding
On June 26, 2020, the GWK decided which of the consortia for the first round of calls would receive funding, resulting in nine NFDI consortia from five scientific fields being selected. These consortia are featured in a special volume of the journal Bausteine FDM. On July 2, 2021, the NFDI consortia to receive funding from the second call were announced.
In their funding decision, the GWK followed the recommendations of the NFDI expert panel, following an intensive review and evaluation process by the GWK.
Some of the NFDI consortia have made their proposals available to the public. You can see these proposals at the NFDI Zenodo Community Collection.
| Consortia | RWTH Affiliation |
|---|---|
|
GHGA – The German Human Genome-Phenome Archive, Division of Medicine, 2020 |
None |
| NFDI4Health – Consortium for Research Data on Material and Immaterial Cultural Heritage, Division of Medicine, 2020 | None |
|
DataPLANT – Fundamental Plant Research, Division of Life Sciences, 2020 |
None |
|
NFDI4BioDiversität – Biodiversity, Ecology, and Environmental Data, Division of Life Sciences, 2020 |
None |
|
NFDI4Earth – Consortium for Earth Sciences, Division of Life Sciences, 2021 |
Participant: |
|
NFDIMicrobiota – Consortium for Microbiology, Division of Life Sciences, 2021 |
Co-Applicant: |
|
BERD@NFDI – Consortium for Business, Economic, and Related Data, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021 |
None |
|
KonsortSWD – Consortium for the Social, Behavioural, Educational, and Economic Sciences, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021 |
None |
| NFDI4Culture – Consortium for Research Data on Material and Immaterial Cultural Heritage, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2020 | None |
|
Text+ - Consortium for Text- and Language-Based Data, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021 |
None |
|
MaRDI – Consortium for Mathematics, Division of Engineering and Mathematics, 2021 |
Participant: |
| NFDI4DataScience – Consortium for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Division of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, 2021 |
Co-Applicant: |
|
NFDI4Ing – National Research Data Infrastructure for Engineering Sciences, Division of Engineering and Mathematics, 2020 |
Applicant: Co-Applicant: Participants: |
|
NFDI4MatWerk – Consortium for Materials Sciences and Materials Engineering, Division of Engineering and Mathematics, 2021 |
Co-Applicants: Participants: |
|
DAPHNE4NFDI – Consortium for Photon and Neutron Experiments, Division of Chemistry and Physics, 2021 |
Co-Applicant: Participant: |
|
FAIRmat – Consortium for Condensed Matter Physics and Chemical Physics of Solids, Division of Chemistry and Physics, 2021 |
Participants: |
|
NFDI4Cat – NFDI for Catalysis-Related Sciences, Division of Chemistry and Physics, 2020 |
Co-Applicant: |
|
NFDI4Chem – Chemistry Consortium in the NFDI, Division of Chemistry and Physics, 2020 |
Co-Applicant: Participant: |
|
PUNCH4NFDI – Consortium for Particle, Astroparticle, Hadron, and Nuclear Physics, Division of Chemistry and Physics, 2021 |
Participant: |
Consortial Initiatives in the Third Round of Calls
An overview of the consortia vying for funding in the third call can be found in the following PDF file available for download: Consortia applying in 2021.
The Application Process
The calls for proposals are managed by the DFG. In total, there will be three rounds of calls to select the consortia to receive funding, held in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Statistical information (de) on proposals received is already available for the 2019 and 2020 rounds.
The third round of calls was opened on May 12, 2021. The third NFDI Conference took place on July 8, 2021.
The deadline for submission is November 2, 2021. By mid-December, the selection process, including interviews with the proposal-submitting institutions, will commence.
For further information, please visit the DFG website.
Any Questions?
If you have any questions on the NFDI, please get in touch with the ServiceDesk. The RDM team is looking forward to hearing from you!
External Links
- German Research Foundation DFG: NDFI-Related Information on the Submission of Proposals, Calls for Proposals, and more. (de)
- Directorate of the National Research Data Infrastructure
- Joint Science Conference GWK (de)
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF: General Information (de)
- "What is the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI)" – An Explanatory Video from the DFG