Assembly of the consortia in the NFDI on 1st April

Fri Apr 01 2022

As part of the governance of the NFDI Association the quarterly assembly of the NFDI consortia (1st and 2nd round, 19 consortia in total) took place online. Before heading to the most significant topic of the state of the Base4NFDI grant application new (co-)heads of the assembly got elected. Andreas Witt of Text+ was proposed for the speaker role, Dirk von Suchodoletz of DataPLANT stood for (re-)election as co-speaker for this body. Both got elected for the coming two years.

The major discussion item was the status of the Base4NFDI proposal. It is actually the single initiative received by the DFG. All actual and future (round 3) consortia are participating. An overview of the current status of the proposal was given, followed by discussion of key concepts, such as division of task areas, designation of co-spokespersons, the process orientation in the selection of basic services, and the proposal of “fast lane” services. Likewise, initial building blocks for the budget were presented. A joint mandate was given by the consortium assembly for the drafting team and proposed co-spokespersons to prepare and submit the proposal in the form presented and discussed.

In preparation, three basic services workshops have been held to date with around 100 participants each since February. The project is driven by eight writing teams (4 of them for the coordination of the NFDI sections and their working groups) in which around 50 contributors are active. DataPLANT has already provided input here as well. There are currently 19 members on the editorial team, which meets twice a week for two hours and coordinates in voting sessions. The teams are supported by nine members in the project office, who also coordinate regularly. In parallel, constructive discussions take place with the DFG Head Office. A central aspect here is the support for far-reaching planning of FlexFunds.

Base4NFDI organizes and finances a process. The proposal identifies concrete opportunities for science-led negotiation and piloting of NFDI basic services in the period from 2023 to 2028. Initial proposals for basic services are part of the proposal. These will go through the planned process prior to a possible start of funding (= fast laners). No commitment is made in the application regarding the scope of funding for specific content or services.