GWK Decides to Continue Funding All Nine NFDI Consortia
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.
Fellowship of the Data Conference in Jena
Source: Ute Trautwein-Bruns (UB RWTH Aachen)
In April 2025, the RDM team from RWTH Aachen University traveled to Jena, Thuringia, to actively participate in the international community meeting for research data management trainers and data stewards. We have summarized our impressions and insights for you in a short report.
Europe’s Answer to Search Engine Monopolies: Pilot Phase of the European Open Web Index
Source: Freepik
On June 6, 2025, the OpenWebSearch.eu consortium, an alliance of 14 renowned European research institutions, including CERN, launched the pilot phase of the European Open Web Index (OWI). The aim is to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty by creating open and balanced access to web data that is based on European values, data protection standards, and legislation. This should also provide new impetus for research data management (RDM).
DKZ.2R Data Café: Your Data – Our Expertise
Source: DKZ.2R
On Tuesday June 24, 2025, the Data Café of the Rhine-Ruhr Center for Scientific Data Competence (DKZ.2R) will be held at the RWTH Aachen University Library. From 11am to 3 pm, researchers can discuss their research data questions with experts in Machine Learning, High-Performance Computing, and Research Data Management in a relaxed, free-of-charge atmosphere over coffee.
Networking in Action: Highlights of the RDM Network Meeting
Source: RDM Team RWTH
The first RDM Network Meeting in the new “Practical Special” format took place on May 22, 2025, in the University Library of RWTH Aachen University. The active RDM community at RWTH, comprising data stewards and other individuals involved in RDM, met in an informal setting to share insights on the latest challenges in Research Data Management, present project updates, and discuss recent developments at RWTH with the RDM team.
Storage Change in Coscine – DataStorage.nrw
Source: Own illustration
With DataStorage.nrw, a new storage system will soon be available behind Coscine, replacing the previous Research Data Storage (RDS). This step does not only bring technical improvements but is also a strategic further development as part of the implementation of fdm.nrw’s RDM state concept.
Sustainable Use of Research Data: Funding From the VolkswagenStiftung
Source: Freepik
As part of its open science policy, the German VolkswagenStiftung supports the reuse of open research data and provides funding for this purpose in the context of “data reuse.”
RDM Network Meeting in April 2025 – Focus on AI Support in Research
Source: RDM Team RWTH Aachen University
On April 24, 2025, the RDM Network Meeting took place in a new format. On this day, the RDM community at RWTH Aachen University gathered online for a Topic Special on “AI Support in Research.” The two experts Lena Nietzschmann from the RWTH Aachen University Library and Soo-Yon Kim from the Chair of Computer Science 5 (Information Systems & Databases) gave exciting presentations on the latest developments in literature research and data annotation in scientific research.
Research Data Management in Action: CoRDI 2025 at RWTH
Source: Freepik
From August 26 to 28, 2025, RWTH Aachen University will host the second Conference on Research Data Infrastructure (CoRDI). The event will bring together stakeholders from academia, infrastructure, and the community to discuss the current state and future of research data management (RDM).
The conference is organized by the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in close cooperation with RWTH. The venue is the C.A.R.L. lecture hall center, which offers modern facilities and a central location, providing ideal conditions for a lively conference atmosphere.
Second Advanced User Meeting of Coscine.nrw
Source: Freepik
On April 29, 2025, the second user meeting of Coscine.nrw took place. The event not only offered exciting insights into current developments in the research data management (RDM) platform, but was above all interactive. In a creative group work phase, participants jointly developed specific criteria for evaluating storage space requests—an important building block for the review process of the new DataStorage.nrw storage system.
