German National Research Data Infrastructure

German National Research Data Infrastructure
Name	German National Research Data Infrastructure
Native name	Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur
Established	2018
Country	Germany
Type	Infrastructure initiative

German National Research Data Infrastructure

The German National Research Data Infrastructure initiative coordinates national efforts to make research data more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable by linking institutions such as the Max Planck Society, Helmholtz Association, Fraunhofer Society, Leibniz Association, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and leading universities like Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Technical University of Munich with domain repositories including Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum, German Data Center for the Humanities, and disciplinary projects connected to European Open Science Cloud, EOSC Association, and international programs such as Research Data Alliance. The initiative builds on precedents from DFG, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, and collaborations with organizations like Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Hamburg, University of Cologne, University of Leipzig, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Overview

The project creates a distributed network linking nodes hosted by institutions such as the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems, Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information, German National Library, German National Library of Science and Technology, Berlin Institute of Health, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin to provide services interoperable with ORCID, DataCite, Crossref, Zenodo, and Figshare. It addresses data lifecycle management required by funders including the European Commission, Wellcome Trust, Horizon Europe, and national agencies like the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and aligns with policies from bodies such as European Research Council and Science Europe.

History and development

Roots trace to national initiatives like the BMBF pilot programs, earlier projects funded by the DFG and community efforts at institutions such as University of Göttingen, University of Heidelberg, University of Freiburg, TU Dresden, and RWTH Aachen University. The initiative was formally announced after consultations with stakeholders including the German Rectors' Conference, Max Planck Society leadership, Helmholtz Centers, and international advisers from OECD and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Early technical pilots referenced standards from W3C, ISO, FAIR principles advocates, and repositories such as PANGAEA, Dryad, Dataverse, and EBI resources like ENA and ArrayExpress.

Organizational structure and governance

Governance involves consortia drawn from the Max Planck Society, Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association, Fraunhofer Society, major universities like University of Münster, University of Tübingen, University of Bonn, and national libraries. Advisory boards include members with links to European Commission policy units, representatives from DFG, German Council of Science and Humanities, and legal advisers familiar with statutes such as the German Federal Data Protection Act. Operational coordination is undertaken by consortia modeled on organizations like GÉANT, EUDAT, and national examples including Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft projects, with technical steering committees drawing expertise from SAGE Publications partners and digital infrastructure groups at Leipzig University.

Services and technical infrastructure

Core components interoperate with identifiers and standards from DataCite, ORCID, Handle System, and metadata schemas used by Dublin Core, schema.org, and domain repositories such as PANGAEA, ELIXIR, BioMed Central, arXiv, and PubMed Central. Technical platforms include federated search, persistent identifier services, metadata registries, authentication via eduGAIN, data management planning tools inspired by DMPTool, and repository software similar to DSpace, Fedora Commons, InvenioRDM, and CKAN. The infrastructure integrates compute and storage partnerships with centers like Gauss Centre for Supercomputing, Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum, and cloud providers cooperating with OpenStack and Kubernetes deployments.

Funding and partnerships

Funding sources combine grants from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, project support from the DFG, contributions from research organizations such as the Max Planck Society, Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association, Fraunhofer Society, and co-investments by universities including University of Bonn, University of Stuttgart, and Technical University of Berlin. International partnerships link to European Commission initiatives, EOSC Association, Research Data Alliance, and bilateral exchanges with agencies like the National Science Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, CNRS, Wellcome Trust, and foundations such as the Humboldt Foundation.

Impact and evaluations

External evaluations reference metrics used by bodies like the European Court of Auditors and assessments from Science Europe and the German Council of Science and Humanities. Outcomes reported by participating organizations such as the Max Planck Society and Helmholtz Association include increased data reuse measured by citations recorded in Crossref and DataCite, improvements in repository interoperability with Zenodo and disciplinary archives like PANGAEA and ELIXIR, and enhanced compliance with mandates from funders including Horizon Europe and the European Research Council. Independent reviews have invoked benchmarking against international projects including UK Research and Innovation investments and standards promoted by the OECD.

Challenges and future directions

Key challenges cited by stakeholders from Universities of Excellence and national research bodies include long-term sustainability comparable to models at European Organization for Nuclear Research, cross-border legal harmonization referencing the General Data Protection Regulation, and scaling services to domain infrastructures like ELIXIR, EPOS, ICU, and humanities projects hosted at Deutsches Architektur Museum-linked repositories. Future directions emphasize deeper integration with European Open Science Cloud, expanded ties to publishers such as Elsevier and Springer Nature under open science agreements, and closer alignment with initiatives led by OECD, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the World Data System.

Category:Research infrastructure in Germany