Source: nfdi.de
As part of its structural evaluation of the NFDI (National Research Data Infrastructure), the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat) emphasized the urgent need for a consolidation phase to ensure the infrastructure’s sustainable development. The council is focusing on three main areas in particular: financing and basic services, governance structures, and an accompanying innovation program.
Consolidation of the Infrastructure
In accordance with the recommendations of the German Science and Humanities Council, the NFDI, which was originally limited to the period from 2019 to 2028, should be established on a permanent basis. To accomplish this, the federal and state governments must provide additional funding, especially for computing power, data storage, and long-term archiving. The goal is to create a stable financial foundation to ensure operations can continue as demands increase.
Further Developing Governance
The 26 specialist consortia are currently coordinated by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), while the nonprofit association NFDI e.V. is responsible for overall strategic management. The German Science and Humanities Council recommends strengthening NFDI e.V. permanently and structuring its activities more clearly by subject area. These changes should streamline existing structures and establish clear responsibilities, allowing for more efficient management of the infrastructure.
Accompanying Innovation Programm
In addition to the ongoing consolidation, the German Science and Humanities Council recommends an innovation program. This program would promote research projects in the field of research data management (RDM), including the development of new standards, tools, and forms of collaboration.
The DFG could design and supervise the program. The goal is to institutionalize the NFDI and further develop in a technologically sustainable manner.
Significance of the Recommendations
Permanent funding ensures not only operation, but also scalability in view of the constantly growing volume of data. The proposed governance optimization promotes clear structures and more efficient decision-making processes.
An innovation program led by the DFG will enable the NFDI to adapt to new challenges.
European Perspective: Data Sovereignty and EOSC
During the evaluation phase, NFDI management emphasized that the time is right to strengthen the national data and AI infrastructure. Data resilience and sovereignty are becoming increasingly important worldwide, and the NFDI is regarded as a pivotal project in this regard. Thus, the NFDI contributes to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and promotes Europe’s independence from commercial providers.
Conclusion
The German Science and Humanities Council’s structural evaluation yields a clear result: permanent funding, leaner and more subject-oriented governance, and an innovation program to ensure the NFDI’s future viability. These changes will establish a solid foundation for a robust, data-driven research system in Germany that is connected internationally and has European appeal. For researchers, this means greater stability, better infrastructure, and new opportunities to use innovative data solutions.
If you have any questions about this topic, please contact the NFDI or the German Science and Humanities Council. Feel free to contact us with any general questions about Research Data Management. The RDM team looks forward to hearing from you and is happy to help!
Responsible for the content of this article is Hania Eid.
The following sources served as the basis for this article:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.