National Research Data Infrastructure for and with Computer Science

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501930651

The main goal of the NFDIxCS consortium is to identify, define and deploy an infrastructure for the operation of services which store complex domain-specific data objects from the vast field of Computer Science (CS) and to implement the FAIR principles across the board. This includes producing reusable data objects which contain not only various types of CS data including the associated metadata, but also the corresponding software, context, and execution information in a standardized form. These data objects - the so-called Research Data Management Containers - can be of any size, structure and quality. Specifically, we address the following issues:1. NFDIxCS will promote the implementation of the FAIR data principles for CS research data and software artifacts, simplify the citation of software and CS data and thus modernize the publication processes and culture of both CS and its applications. NFDIxCS provides a forum for the discussion of CS research data formats, metadata formats and semantics. It will work towards generally accepted standards, in particular for the sustainable storage, retrieval and availability of CS research data.2. NFDIxCS will, in collaboration with other scientific disciplines, support the application of CS methods such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. In addition, the operation of these systems generates large amounts of data, e.g. in the areas of high performance computing and computer architecture, which in turn also contribute to the further development of genuine CS methods.3. NFDIxCS will share the experience and knowledge of the CS community on system architectures, processes, standards for interoperability, data-oriented scientific publication and communication systems with all interested scientific disciplines / consortia in the NFDI family.The association GI (Gesellschaft für Informatik) – comprising related specialist groups and communication channels – in combination with other partners at national, European and international level will be used as a basis and starting point to create an open environment to support all researchers in CS with their research data needs. The core principle in NFDIxCS is to establish an organizational and technical, cooperative and interoperable, extensible and open infrastructure to bundle the existing forces of relevant services and actors from and for CS. For this purpose, qualitative content analysis from the CS community will be used to empirically derive the requirements of the sub-disciplines from their profile descriptions and transfer them into an open service infrastructure. The developed services will be designed for sustainable operation at minimal cost. Targeted community development for cultural change will support young academics to negotiate practices and norms and to develop the competencies to handle their research data responsibly.

• DFG Programme: NFDI technical and methodological consortia
• Applicant Institution: Universität Duisburg-Essen
• Co-Applicant Institution: FIZ Karlsruhe; Leibniz-Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur GmbH (FIZ KA); Forschungszentrum Jülich; Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI); Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen; Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Karlsruher Institut für Technologie; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen; Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (LZI); Technische Universität Darmstadt; Technische Universität Dresden; Technische Universität München (TUM); Universität Bayreuth, since 3/2023; Universität Hamburg; Universität Paderborn; Universität Potsdam
• Participating Institution: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI); Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum GmbH; Universität Stuttgart; Verein zur Förderung eines Deutschen Forschungsnetzes e. V.; DFN-Geschäftsstelle Berlin
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Michael Goedicke
• Co-Spokespersons: Dr. Marcel R. Ackermann; Professorin Dr. Franziska Boehm; Professor Dr.-Ing. André Brinkmann; Professor Dr.-Ing. Hannes Federrath; Professorin Dr. Agnes Koschmider; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Anne Koziolek; Daniel Krupka; Professor Dr. Thomas Lippert; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Ulrike Lucke; Professor Dr. Matthias S. Müller; Professor Dr. Wolfgang E. Nagel; Professor Tobias Nipkow, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Christian Plessl; Professor Dr. Ralf Heinrich Reussner; Professor Dr. Albrecht Schmidt; Professor Dr. Martin Schulz; Professor Dr. Raimund Seidel; Dr. Michael Wagner; Professor Dr. Felix Wolf, since 4/2023; Professor Dr. Ramin Yahyapour
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Florian Alt; Professor Dr.-Ing. Christoph Benzmüller; Dr.-Ing. Daniel Demmler; Professor Dr. Gregor Engels; Dr. Bernhard Fechner; Professor Dr. Martin Frank; Dr.-Ing. Christian Grimm; Professor Dr. Wilhelm Hasselbring; Dr. Jens Heidrich; Professor Dr. Timo Kehrer; Professor Dr. Ulf Leser; Dr. Jan Linxweiler; Professor Dr. Thomas Mandl; Professorin Dr. Vera Gisbertowna Meister; Professor Dr. Andreas Oberweis; Professor Dr. Klaus Pohl; Professor Dr. Tilmann Rabl; Professor Dr. Enrico Rukzio; Professor Dr. Bernhard Rumpe; Professor Dr. Philipp Schaer; Dr. Gunther Schiefer; Professor Dr. Bernt Schiele; Professor Dr.-Ing. Horst Schirmeier; Professorin Dr. Ute Schmid; Professorin Dr. Nicole Schweikardt; Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Sobe; Professor Dr. Alexander Steen; Professor Dr. Sven Strickroth; Professor Dr. Michael Striewe; Professor Dr. Matthias Weidlich