Source: Freepik
On July 4, 2025, the Joint Science Conference (GWK) decided to continue funding all nine NFDI consortia from the first funding round. They will receive follow-up funding and will start the second project phase in October 2025. The federal and state governments will jointly provide around 92 million euros for this purpose until the end of 2028.
This decision is excellent news for the consortia involved and for everyone involved in research data management (RDM). The NFDI plays a central role in establishing a sustainable, interdisciplinary data infrastructure in Germany.
Why Is This Relevant to You?
The NFDI’s vision is to establish research data as a shared resource for excellent research and to enable interdisciplinary data exchange. To this end, consortia have been formed to develop industry-specific standards, tools, and services for science.
The nine consortia that will receive further funding include:
- DataPLANT – Data in Plant Basic Research (biology)
- GHGA – German Human Genome Phenome Archive (medicine)
- KonsortSWD – Consortium for Social, Educational, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (social sciences)
- NFDI4Biodiversity – Biodiversity, Ecology, and Environmental Data (Biology),
- NFDI4Cat – NFDI for Sciences Related to Catalysis (Chemistry),
- NFDI4Chem – Specialist Consortium for Chemistry in the NFDI (Chemistry),
- NFDI4Culture – Consortium for Research Data on Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage (Humanities),
- NFDI4Health – National Research Data Infrastructure for Personal Health Data (Medicine),
- and NFDI4ING – National Research Data Infrastructure for Engineering Sciences (Engineering Sciences). [1]
RWTH Aachen University is one of the most active universities in the NFDI context and is represented in several consortia in various roles, as applicant, co-applicant, and participant. In the first funding phase, RWTH was the applicant institution in the NFDI4Ing consortium; in the second phase, it is now a co-applicant institution. The IT Center continues to play a key role and, together with the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL), the Institute of Aerodynamics (AIA), the clusters of excellence “Internet of Production” and “Fuel Science Center,” the Collaborative Research Center SFB/TRR 129, the Fraunhofer IPT, and the University Library, is making central contributions. The list of participating institutions refers to the first funding phase and may differ in the second phase. (*)
In addition, RWTH is also active as a co-applicant in other consortia. The IT Center is also involved in NFDI4Chem, together with the Chair of Bioinorganic Chemistry. The Chair of Heterogeneous Catalysis and Technical Chemistry is involved in NFDI4Cat. Even though the IT Center is not directly involved here, RWTH as a whole has a strong institutional presence across various departments. [2]
Continued funding for these consortia will enable them to further develop their offerings, tools, and services. This will result in concrete benefits for researchers, teachers, and those interested in RDM: data will be more accessible, there will be discipline-specific solutions, training opportunities, and new networking opportunities within their own professional community.
What Will Happen in the Second Phase?
In the coming years, the consortia will work to deepen their existing activities and address new needs from the scientific community. This will not only involve technical developments, but also the following questions:
- Which metadata standards work in practice?
- How can legal frameworks be better taken into account?
- And how can RDM be more widely established?
This last question is particularly important at RWTH. Many of the solutions developed in the consortia can be integrated directly or with minor adjustments into local RDM practice. It therefore makes sense to find out about current developments at an early stage and to actively engage in dialogue with the consortia.
Before a new funding phase can begin, the consortia undergo a science-based evaluation. This is carried out by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and forms the basis for decisions made by the federal and state governments in the Joint Science Conference (GWK). This ensures transparency and alignment with technical quality criteria. The entire process is regulated in the “Federal-State Agreement on the Establishment and Promotion of a National Research Data Infrastructure” of November 26, 2018.
This structured approach in particular demonstrates the importance that sustainable RDM now has in science policy.
Conclusion
The GWK’s decision provides planning security and gives the further development of the NFDI a decisive boost. For science, this means reliable support for the sustainable handling of research data – from collection and processing to long-term reuse.
Further information on the NFDI and the consortia can be found on the NFDI website and on the RDM RWTH website.
If you have any questions on topics related to research data management, please do not hesitate to contact us. The RDM team looks forward to hearing from you and will be happy to help!
Responsible for the content of this article is Hania Eid.
The following source served as the basis for this article:
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