Research Data Alliance

Research Data Alliance. It is an international, member-driven organization focused on building the social and technical infrastructure to enable open sharing and reuse of research data. Founded in 2013 through a partnership among the European Commission, the United States Government, and the Australian Government, it operates as a neutral, consensus-based community. The alliance brings together a diverse global network of data scientists, librarians, computer scientists, and domain experts from academia, industry, and government to address data challenges.

History and formation

The concept emerged from discussions at a 2012 workshop in Sweden organized by the DataONE project and the CODATA organization, recognizing a critical need for coordinated international data infrastructure. Its formal launch was announced at the RDA Plenary 1 in Gothenburg in March 2013, supported by founding partners including the Australian National Data Service and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Early leadership from figures like Fran Berman and John Wood was instrumental in establishing its community-driven ethos. The inaugural RDA Plenary 2 in Washington, D.C. later that year solidified its operational model and began attracting widespread participation from organizations like the Max Planck Society and the National Institutes of Health.

Organizational structure

Governance is provided by a Council of elected global representatives and an appointed Technical Advisory Board overseeing the scientific direction. Day-to-day operations are managed by a small Secretariat, historically hosted by organizations such as CSIRO in Australia and later the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The broader community is organized into Interest Groups for sustained discussion on specific topics and Working Groups tasked with producing concrete deliverables. Membership is open to individuals and organizations, with key support from Organisational Members like Elsevier, Microsoft Research, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

Activities and working groups

Primary activities revolve around collaborative plenary meetings, held biannually in locations such as Dublin, Tokyo, and Barcelona, where groups convene to advance work. Working Groups have tackled issues like Data Citation, developing the RDA/WDS Publishing Data Workflows, and creating the RDA COVID-19 Working Group recommendations. Interest Groups cover areas including Legal Interoperability, Agricultural Data, and Repository Platforms. The alliance also fosters early-career engagement through programs like the RDA Europe Early Career Ambassador scheme and hosts specialized events like the RDA Summer Schools in collaboration with institutions like the University of Tennessee.

Key outputs and recommendations

The community has produced numerous adopted outputs that have become international references. These include the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model, which provides guidelines for assessing implementation of the FAIR principles, and the RDA TRUST Principles for digital repositories. Technical specifications like the RDA Persistent Identifier (PID) Kernel Information and the RDA Data Type Registries have been integrated by infrastructures such as DataCite and EUDAT. The RDA 23 Things document offers libraries a practical guide for data outreach, while recommendations from the RDA Wheat Data Interoperability Working Group have influenced global agronomy research.

Impact and recognition

Its outputs have been adopted by major entities including the European Open Science Cloud, the Group on Earth Observations, and the World Data System. The work of the RDA COVID-19 Working Group was recognized by the United Nations and informed policy responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The alliance maintains formal liaisons with standards bodies like the International Organization for Standardization and partner organizations such as the Research Software Alliance. It has also influenced national data strategies in countries like Germany and the United Kingdom, and its members have received accolades including the DataWorks! Prize for significant contributions to data infrastructure.