bwData4NFDI KIT + U-HD (NFDI-Storage 2025)

• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 579751576

With the growing reliance of modern science on data-intensive methods, there is an increasing need for powerful, large-scale IT infrastructure to support the storage, processing, and seamless access to vast volumes of scientific data. The National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is creating a German-wide cross-disciplinary data infrastructure fostering the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles in research. Providing the NFDI – particularly the discipline-specific consortia – with adequate data storage resources is essential to ensuring sustainable and effective research data management. This proposal requests both online storage systems for hot data as well as hierarchical storage systems for warm and cold data. Based on a NFDI-wide requirements analysis process, storage demands for individual storage providers were derived. In total, 50 PB of disk and tape storage resources are planned to be procured and installed through this proposal. These storage resources will be integrated into the existing Large Scale Data Facility (LSDF) jointly operated at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Heidelberg University in the context of a state-wide federated infrastructure for high-performance computing, data-intensive computing and data-intensive services in Baden-Württemberg. From a technical perspective, the LSDF’s disk-based storage will be expanded with additional capacity of approx. 16 PB for hot data. For warm and cold data, a hierarchical storage service with approx. 34 PB will enable the long-term, energy-efficient storage of data combined with fast data migration between both storage types. The storage demands of a wide range of NFDI consortia are addressed by this proposal, namely DAPHNE4NFDI, NFDI4BioImage, NFDI4Cat, NFDI4Chem, NFDI4Culture, NFDI4Health, NFDI4Ing, NFDI-MatWerk and PUNCH4NFDI. This proposal is part of a set coordinated by the National High Performance Computing (NHR) centers. This collaborative effort is rooted in the NHR's established expertise in providing nationwide, cross-university services and managing large-scale research infrastructures. This proposal is also part of the bwData4NFDI initiative where two complementary, coordinated proposals are supported by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and Arts (MWK). This collaborative effort builds on a framework concept of the universities of Baden-Württemberg for data-intensive services and also draws on many years of experience in operating federated data infrastructures in the state of Baden-Württemberg

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: bwData4NFDI KIT + U-HD (NFDI-Speicher 2025)
• Instrumentation Group: 7000 Datenverarbeitungsanlagen, zentrale Rechenanlagen
• Applicant Institution: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
• Leader: Professor Dr. Achim Streit