DataPLANT expands the target community and access to servcies through collaboration

Fri Aug 30 2024

Initiated with NFDI4Biodiversity in April 2024, DataPLANT seeks new ways to further developments, including the expansion of the target community beyond the initial core of plant research. Thus, multiple life sciences consortia started to discuss forms of collaborations on various levels. Growing cross-consortia synergies will supplant redundancies. A joint group of DataPLANT, NFDI4Biodiversity, and NFDI4Microbiota started to align common interests at both technical and organizational levels which will be detailed in a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) being prepared by the consortia. Additionally, FAIRagro and NFDI4BIOIMAGE, two consortia which are already interconnected technically through the ARC-RO Crate standardization efforts detailed in bidirectional MoUs, are anticipated to formally join as well.

The activities aim to enhance collaboration and streamline efforts across related consortia, leveraging shared expertise to advance the overall goals of the NFDI. The target communities of the three consortia use similar methods and work with comparable data types relevant to their research. Our investments in solutions for specific data types and methods during the first years of operation have therefore been highly complementary, reflecting their importance to the community. Primarily biological data will serve as a unifying element to harmonize research data management (RDM) strategies across different research contexts. This approach will facilitate access to services and other data-related resources in the biology field and develop synergies across the consortia. The cooperation will be inclusive, welcoming other consortia that work with biological data. Potential synergies include, but are not limited to: education and training, outreach and communication, the service portfolio to reuse and co-development of services as well as various forms of user support (e.g. through a shared helpdesk and knowledge base). This will strengthen existing services, consolidate infrastructures and broaden our user bases.

DataPLANT’s concepts and services are used to advance RDM in other Life Science disciplines in the NFDI, and are also of interest to NFDI4BIOIMAGE. The new participant in our consortium Prof. Weidtkamp-Peters, as speaker for NFDI4BIOIMAGE, will foster joint activities in terms of services, data, and research in RDM strategies in the shared research domains and beyond. NFDI4BIOIMAGE actively promotes DataPLANT’s ARC RO-Crate concepts in various national and NFDI contexts and in Life Science RDM workshops. This is beeing adapted jointly with FAIRagro to the needs of the respective FAIRagro use cases as well.