FAIRmat – FAIR Data Infrastructure for Condensed-Matter Physics and the Chemical Physics of Solids

• Subject Area: Physics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460197019

Scientific data are a significant raw material of the 21st century. To exploit their value, a FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-purposable – data infrastructure (DI) is a must. Making data Findable and AI Ready (an alternative interpretation of the acronym) will change the way how science is done today. For the wider field of condensed-matter physics and the chemical physics of solids, FAIRmat sets out to make this happen. Integrating synthesis, experiment, theory, computations, and applications, it will substantially further the basic physical sciences, reaching out to chemistry, engineering, industry, and society.Why are FAIRmat’s research data so important? Simply speaking, the prosperity and lifestyle of our society are very much governed by achievements of this field as new products from the energy, environment, health, mobility, IT sectors, etc. very much rely on improved or even novel materials. Examples are solid-state lighting, touch screens, batteries, implants, and many more. Boosted by the US Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), an enormous amount of data on materials (basic and applied science and engineering) has been produced in recent years. These data are largely kept on local servers, but their characterization is typically incomplete. Without an efficient DI, the data are neither easily accessible nor re-usable. In this NFDI project, FAIRmat will • Create a federated FAIR DI for materials data with a central hub, the FAIRmat Portal;• Advance and develop metadata schemas and ontologies;• Enable efficient exchange of the FAIR research data, ensuring that the FAIRmat DI will advance basic science of condensed-matter and materials physics with very little burden for active researchers and also be of great value for engineering; • Convince scientists to also share data they consider useless for their present purpose-oriented research;• Reach out within and beyond its community providing advice, training, and user support.FAIRmat represents a broad community of numerous researchers from universities and leading institutions in Germany. It builds on extensive experience with the worldwide biggest data infra-structure in computational materials science, the Novel Materials Discovery (NOMAD) Laboratory and the association FAIR-DI e.V. FAIRmat aims at covering the full breadth of the Condensed Matter Section of the German Physical Society (DPG) with its 12 divisions, and is further supported by the Chemistry, Physics, and Technology Section of the Max Planck Society, the Bun-sen Society for Physical Chemistry, and more. It is fully embedded internationally, e.g., in the Research Data Alliance, the European Open Science Cloud, GO FAIR, etc. and has signed Memoranda of Understanding with leading institutions worldwide, for example NIST (USA), Shanghai University (China), and CSC (Finland). FAIRmat will continue to raise awareness and acceptance of a FAIR research-data infrastructure in Germany, Europe, and beyond.

• DFG Programme: NFDI technical and methodological consortia
• Applicant Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Co-Applicant Institution: FAIR-DI e.V.; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (FHI); Karlsruher Institut für Technologie; Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ); im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V.; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. (MPG); Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Energiekonversion (CEC); Technische Universität München (TUM)
• Participating Institution: Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft e. V.; Max Planck Computing and Data Facility, since 10/2023; Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Claudia Draxl
• Co-Spokespersons: Dr. Martin Albrecht; Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Bungartz; Dr. Mark Greiner; Professor Dr. Matthias Scheffler; Professor Dr. Christof Wöll
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Martin Aeschlimann; Professor Dr. Sören Auer; Privatdozent Dr. Carsten Baldauf; Dr. Tristan Bereau; Professor Dr. Stefan Blügel; Professorin Dr. Silvana Botti; Professor Dr. Christoph J. Brabec; Malte Dreyer; Dr. Natascha Dropka; Professor Dr. Ralph Ernstorfer; Professor Dr. Norbert Esser; Professorin Dr. Claudia Felser; Dr. Luca Ghiringhelli; Professor Dr. Roger Gläser; Professor Dr. Axel Groß; Professor Dr. Marius Grundmann; Professor Dr. Aleksander Gurlo; Privatdozent Dr. Thomas Hammerschmidt; Privatdozent Dr. Tamás Haraszti; Professor Dr. Stefan Hecht; Professor Dr. Thomas Heine; Kerstin Helbig; Professor Dr. Jürgen Janek; Heinz Junkes; Professor Dr. Christoph Tobias Koch, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Kurt Kremer; Dr. Michael Krieger; Professor Dr. Josef Alfons Käs; Professorin Dr. Sarah Köster; Dr.-Ing. Markus Tobias Kühbach; Dr. Hermann Lederer; Professorin Dr. Ingrid Mertig; Professor Dr. Wolfgang E. Nagel; Professorin Dr. Rossitza Pentcheva; Professor Dr.-Ing. Dierk Raabe; Professor Dr. Alexander Reinefeld; Professor Dr. Karsten Reuter; Dr. Raphael Ritz; Dr. Cesar Rodriguez-Emmenegger, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Erich Runge; Dr. Markus Scheidgen; Professor Dr. Robert Schlögl; Professor Dr. Thomas Schröder; Professor Dr. Godehard Sutmann; Dr. Annette Trunschke; Dr. Thomas Unold; Professorin Dr. Maria Roser Valenti; Professor Dr. Heiko B. Weber; Dr. Dieter Weber; Dr. Holger von Wenckstern; Professor Dr.-Ing. Stefan Wesner; Professor Dr. Joachim Wosnitza