NFDI4Chem – Chemistry Consortium in the NFDI

• Subject Area: Chemistry
• Term: since 2020
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441958208

The vision of NFDI4Chem is the digitalisation of all key steps in chemical research to support scientists in their efforts to collect, store, process, analyse, disclose and re-use research data. Measures to promote Open Science and Research Data Management (RDM) in agreement with the FAIR data principles are fundamental aims of NFDI4Chem to serve the chemistry community with a holistic concept for access to research data. To this end, the overarching objective is the development and maintenance of a national research data infrastructure for the research domain of chemistry in Germany, and to enable innovative and easy to use services and novel scientific approaches based on re-use of research data. NFDI4Chem intends to represent all disciplines of chemistry in academia. We aim to collaborate closely with thematically related consortia. In the initial phase, NFDI4Chem focuses on data related to molecules and reactions including data for their experimental and theoretical characterisation. This overarching goal is achieved by working towards a number of key objectives: Key Objective 1: Establish a virtual environment of federated repositories for storing, disclosing, searching and re-using research data across distributed data sources. Connect existing data repositories and, based on a requirements analysis, establish domain-specific research data repositories for the national research community, and link them to international repositories. Key Objective 2: Initiate international community processes to establish minimum information (MI) standards for data and machine-readable metadata as well as open data standards in key areas of chemistry. Identify and recommend open data standards in key areas of chemistry, in order to support the FAIR principles for research data. Finally, develop standards, if there is a lack. Key Objective 3: Foster cultural and digital change towards Smart Laboratory Environments by promoting the use of digital tools in all stages of research and promote subsequent Research Data Management (RDM) at all levels of academia, beginning in undergraduate studies curricula. Key Objective 4: Engage with the chemistry community in Germany through a wide range of measures to create awareness for and foster the adoption of FAIR data management. Initiate processes to integrate RDM and data science into curricula. Offer a wide range of training opportunities for researchers. Key Objective 5: Explore synergies with other consortia and promote cross-cutting development within the NFDI. Key Objective 6: Provide a legally reliable framework of policies and guidelines for FAIR and open RDM.

• DFG Programme: NFDI technical and methodological consortia
• International Connection: Estonia
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
• Co-Applicant Institution: FIZ Karlsruhe; Leibniz-Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur GmbH (FIZ KA); Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Karlsruher Institut für Technologie; Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzenbiochemie (IPB); Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen; Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)
• Participating Institution: Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der chemischen Wissenschaften; Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), since 6/2023; Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft (DPhG); Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (FHI); Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker e.V. (GDCh); Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ); Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg; Leibniz-Institut für Photonische Technologien e.V. (IPHT), since 8/2021; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB); Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau, since 2/2024; Technische Universität Braunschweig; Technische Universität Dortmund; Technische Universität Dresden; Universität Stuttgart, since 6/2022; Universität zu Köln, from 10/2020 until 12/2021
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christoph Steinbeck
• Co-Spokespersons: Dr. Felix Bach; Professorin Dr. Sonja Herres-Pawlis; Dr. Nicole Jung; Dr. Oliver Koepler; Dr. Johannes Liermann; Privatdozent Dr. Steffen Neumann; Matthias Razum
• Participating Persons: Privatdozent Dr. Carsten Baldauf; Dr. Frank Biedermann; Professor Dr. Thomas Bocklitz; Professorin Dr. Franziska Boehm; Professor Dr. Werner Brack; Dr. Frank Broda; Professor Dr. Paul Czodrowski; Dr. Thomas Engel; Professor Dr. Alfred Forchel, from 10/2020 until 3/2021; Dr. Martin G. Hicks, from 10/2020 until 1/2021; Professor Dr.-Ing. Stefan M. Kast; Dr. Carsten Kettner; Professor Dr. Wolfram Koch; Dr. Stefan Kuhn, since 4/2024; Dr. Giacomo Lanza; Professor Dr. Stefan Laufer; Professor Dr. Andreas Link; Professor Dr. Ricardo Mata; Professor Dr. Matthias S. Müller; Dr. Ralph Müller-Pfefferkorn; Professor Dr. Wolfgang E. Nagel; Dr. Wendy Patterson, since 2/2021; Dr. Silke Pienkny; Professor Dr. Jürgen Pleiss, since 6/2022; Professor Dr. Ulrich Schatzschneider; Dr. Nils Schlörer, from 10/2020 until 12/2021; Dr. Tobias Schulze, from 10/2020 until 9/2023; Robert Strötgen, since 11/2022; Katrin Stump, from 10/2020 until 4/2022; Professor Dr. Patrick Théato; Dr. Hans-Georg Weinig; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Wenzel; Professor Dr. Ludger A. Wessjohann; Stefan Wulle