A joint InfraTalk with NFDI4BioDiversity, DataPlant and NFDI4Microbiota entitled "Current developments in the global Genome Commons and challenges for service provision in NFDI" was given on 16.05.2022, on research results on potential value chain of Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and ways to quantify DSI uses in science. The talk dived into current chalenges and options for use of DSI, and outreach to the WiLDSI data portal to quantify the DSI use in scintific literature as collaborive effort in the WiLDSI project together with the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ), the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK). The recording of the InfraTalk is available at YouTube.
The FAIRagro partner IPK is involved in the INCREASING implementation study (IS) of the ELIXIR infrastructure. The idea of this IS is to bundle existing tools and services of the plant science community as well as provide training to ensure visibility and outreach. In frame of this the IPK is strengthening the cooperation with NFDI DataPlant consortium to push the work on developing suitable data containers for plant research data, like Annotated Research Context (ARC) or Research Object Crate (RO-Crate). This work will also be important for FAIRagro, especially for the Scientific Workflow Infrastructure (SciWin) - a planned service of FAIRagro.
We submitted our statement on our very positive review to the DFG in due time on 08.04.2022 and thus took the opportunity to point out our current developments and networking. In this way, we were able to take up and concretise the reviewers' supportive comments.
- The sections are legally dependent divisions of the NFDI Association. They deal with so-called cross-sectional issues, i.e. topics that are interesting and important for all consortia. The Scientific Senate of the NFDI Association established four sections on 01.10.2021 - Common Infrastructures (section-infra), Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects (section-ELSA), (Meta)data Terminologies and Provenance (section-metadata), Training & Education (section-edutrain). With the election of the speakers, the work in the sections is starting. We congratulate Franziska Böhm on her election as spokesperson for the ELSA section and look forward to close networking and exchange in the future.
We are pleased to announce that Juliane Fluck has been confirmed as co-spokesperson at base4nfdi. She will be responsible for the task area "Service Negotiation & Development Process Coordination'' and thus actively contribute to the submission of the base4nfdi proposal and to the successful launch of the project if it is funded. Both FAIRagro and base4nfdi will benefit from this networking.
Geonode (https://geonode.org/) is THE open source geodata management system that many important research institutions rely on: The FAIRagro partners ZALF, Thünen, JKI and HSWT together with other institutions and the community strive for an information exchange regarding the use and further development of Geonode in the scientific field; the first meeting took place on 28.02.2022. Florian Hoedt (Thünen) organizes these meetings. If you also want to contribute actively, feel free to contact him and be involved in further scheduled meetings. Together we want to promote Geonode as part of the FAIRagro Open Source strategy. You want to experience Geonode live? Browse the Thünen Atlas, a Geonode instance of the Thünen Institute and learn more in the talk "Geonode as a research data platform".
On February 1, 2022, the DFG published the call for proposals for the so-called NFDI basic services. Base service initiatives are potentially intended to accommodate the needs of all subject and methodological consortia and to realize corresponding services. In the meantime, the 19 funded subject consortia have joined forces to submit a joint funding application base4nfdi on 29.4.2022. The consortia of the 3rd call are explicitly called to contribute to this application as well. FAIRagro is responding to this call and has identified a number of topics for potential base services with which it will participate. These include "Long-term Archiving", "Identity and Access Management", "Terminology Service", "Fair Digital Objects'', and "Certificate Infrastructures". The focus of the application is on the elaboration of the processes to implement basic services and will be realized mainly by applying for so-called flexible funds. A working group on basic services within FAIRagro is preparing participation in base4nfdi.
FAIRagro actively contacted interested participants of the idea Secret Santa organized last year and was able to concretise initial ideas and needs in direct dialogue. We were thus able to determine the potential where and how existing Use Cases can be expanded via our planned onboarding process, as well as how planned services can be used and contribute to further networking. You are welcome to read the concrete ideas of Gritta Schrader (JKI) here.
We submitted our proposal to the DFG on November the 2nd, 2021 and defended it in front of an international review panel on January the 17th, 2022. We have now received positive feedback and would like to thank the reviewers as well as all those involved in the consortium. We are confidently awaiting the results of the NFDI expert panel in May, which will make funding recommendations to the GWK based on the existing reviews. The GWK will announce the final decision in November.
Network building among FAIRagro partners goes on. The Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) is currently testing an instance of SRADI (Smart Rural Areas Data Infrastructure). SRADI is an interdisciplinary data platform for the comprehensive structuring and sharing of research data developed at the World Agricultural Systems Center and the Chair of Geoinformatics at the Technical University Munich.
ZALF operates the BonaRes Repository of Soil and Agricultural Research Data, the portal for more than 400 longterm field experiments in Germany and Europe, and a platform for sustainability assessment of emerging and future soil management practices and technologies. In the third and final funding phase of the BonaRes Centre, the aim is now to consolidate the infrastructures that have been built up and to transfer the methods developed into long-term use for the benefit of soil health.
Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Frank Ewert
Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
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