Don’t forget to join the NFDI4Earth online Coffee Lecture series, scheduled from January to April 2024, every second Friday from 11:00 to 12:00 hrs. For detailed information on upcoming lectures and registration, please visit our website. 

In the first two years of the NFDI4Earth project the different working groups have achieved significant progress. However, there are topics that have cross-cutting or overarching relevance and impact, requiring consideration and discussion on a larger scale.

An internal meeting is scheduled to take place at Frankfurt/M. on 7 and 8 March 2024 aiming to provide an opportunity to discuss overarching topics and exchange ideas just before the release of the NFDI4Earth infrastructure at the 3rd NFDI4Earth Plenary (21 – 24 May 2024) in Dresden.

NFDI4Earth closes down its Twitter/X account in favor of other platforms. From now on, we share news, announcements, and results on Mastodon and LinkedIn. 
 
Please follow us and join the dialogue about NFDI4Earth! 
 
Learn more about the social media transition in the NFDI. 

Daniel Nüst (TU Dresden)

We are thrilled to share the success of our DataXplorers cross-community hackathon, which concluded in an inspiring hybrid event on 5 and 6 December 2023 at Frankfurt/Main. Challenge providers, participants of the hackathon, and interested audiences from the community came together to present the accomplishments of their work, engage in discussions about future steps, and foster valuable connections. The event was joined by 20 in-person and 29 remote participants from 28 different institutions.  

The hackathon was jointly organized by the NFDI4Earth Academy, NFDI4Biodiversity, and NFDI4Microbiota and focused on developing tools and working on data bridging the different communities. Several NFDI4Earth partners from the Bavarian State Archives (GDA), Bielefeld University, Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, and TU Dresden were involved in planning and supervising the hackathon challenges. The DataXplorers hackathon started with an online kick-off event on 23 October 2023 and offered six different challenges, of which four were actively pursued.  

The teams achieved astonishing results within only six weeks of working time. All results, along with a comprehensive report, will soon be made publicly available in the DataXplorers Zenodo Community. We extend our sincere gratitude to all participants, organizers, and partners for making the DataXplorers hackathon a success. 

Effi-Laura Drews (FZ Jülich & Geoverbund ABC/J), Jonas Kuppler (GFZ Potsdam & Geo.X),

Kristin Sauerland (MARUM & Deutsche Allianz Meeresforschung), Hilde Gödde (GFZ Potsdam & Geo.X), Konstantin Ntageretzis (FZ Jülich & Geoverbund ABC/J) &

Gauvain Wiemer (Deutsche Allianz Meeresforschung)

On 14 December 2023 the hands-on workshop for the development of appraisal criteria for archiving of Bio-/Geo-Science data took place at the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam. With scientists from various research fields and NFDI consortia, archivists as well as representatives from governmental agencies we discussed possible criteria applicable for the appraisal for long-term archiving of different data types, such as observational data, modelling/simulation data, long-tail data or method development. 

Bringing together different expert perspectives proved to be very fruitful and valuable for the ongoing effort to develop guidelines and materials for securing the long-term preservation of research data. The results of the workshop will be further discussed and made available. 

Peter Valena (Bavarian State Archives Munich)

The IG 'Geology & Geophysics' (I3G) deals with the growing digital requirements within the geological and geophysical sciences. The most important topic area is the data infrastructure needs of scientists and engineers who are willing to share their data and software developments nationally and internationally in line with the FAIR principles. There is significant interest in multi-purpose 3D information systems that work on the basis of existing platforms with parameterised geological 3D models. Economically and socially relevant geoscientific topics with a strong practical relevance, such as the use of AI, data services and formats, software libraries or digital twins, are exchanged in virtual meetings and workshops and new application standards are discussed. 

At the NFDI4Earth-I3G online workshop at the end of November 2023, current projects and work topics of our member institutions in the field of research data infrastructure and software were presented in short technical papers.  

Florian Bauer from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) introduced the Kadi4Geo research data infrastructure, which is part of the Kadi4X infrastructure network and is being developed at the Institute for Applied Materials at KIT. 

Ira Gerloff from the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics Hannover (LIAG) gave an overview of selected OGC 3D web services and applications for the planned integration into the GeotIS geothermal information system operated by the LIAG. 

Stephan Mäs from the  (TU Dresden) presented results from the new research data infrastructure and online application Heatflow.world, a joint project with the GFZ, for the Global Heat Flow Database. 

If you are interested in joining I3G, or if you have any further questions, please contact Thorsten Agemar (thorsten.agemar@leibniz-liag.de) or Florian Bauer (florian.bauer@kit.edu). 

Further details about the IG can be found here. 

Ira Gerloff (Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics Hannover)

NFDI4Earth signs MoU with UNU Sustainability-AID

UNU Sustainability-AID is an initiative of the United Nations University to enable the Resource Nexus approach to integrated resource management and sustainable development. The UNU Sustainability Nexus AID Programme is focused on identifying, developing, and promoting data, information, computational techniques, and analytical tools that facilitate the sustainable management of water, soil, waste, energy, and geo-resources based on nexus thinking. It involves an international network of AID scientists and professionals who work at the interface of science-policy-society to facilitate the regional and global collaborative efforts to tackling the triple planetary crisis of climate, nature, and pollution and fulfilling the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using a nexus approach. 

Prof. Dr. Lars Bernard, Spokesperson for NFDI4Earth, and Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the MoU signing ceremony on 27 November 2023 at the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Zwinger Dresden, Germany

Serena Coetzee, Kaveh Madani (United Nations University)

NFDI4Earth highlight: easy use of governmental data at the DataXplorers Hackathon – a pilot project makes it possible! 

In the NFDI4Earth-funded pilot project "OcMod - Observations closer to Model Data", government data was processed in such a way that it can be used directly for research purposes. Employees of the German Weather Service (DWD) and the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) demonstrate this, using the DWD's COSMO-REA6 reanalysis dataset as an example. In an intensive process, the data was quality-checked, adapted and standardised to meet the requirements of the scientific community and published in the "World Data Center for Climate (WDCC)" repository at the DKRZ and thus made available for climate research. This initiative not only ensures accessibility, but also increases the potential for collaborative research.  

Recently, the data was at the centre of DataXplorers, a cross-community hackathon of the NFDIs NFDI4Biodiversity, NFDI4Earth and NFDI4Microbiota, where participants used the richness of the data for creative solutions. The success of this endeavor highlights the value of linking governmental datasets to research needs and sets the stage for future collaborations.

The TU Braunschweig (TUBS) was founded in 1745 for teaching mathematical and technical subjects alongside humanities and fine arts. Today, around 17,000 students enjoy the 87 degree programmes at 120 institutes. TUBS is one of the leading universities of technology in Germany and a member of the TU9, cooperating with more than 400 partner institutes and research facilities in more than 60 countries. 

In December 2023, TUBS joined the NFDI4Earth Consortium to contribute their expertise in Citizen Science in teaching and research. Dr. Hannes Müller-Thomy from the department of Hydrology and River Basin Management (HydRiv) at the Leichtweiß-Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources leads the incubator project “DO IT! – Digitization of analogue records in time”. The project includes numerous facets of Citizen Science taught in a customized lecture for hydrology, which are also applied in several research projects at the department. 

The motivation behind DO IT! are the thousands years of analogue records which exist in earth system sciences, but are still an unburied treasure in the age of digitization. The digitization of these data needs manpower – but not necessarily with scientific background. Breaking down the digitization to an easy applicable smartphone application will enable the involvement of citizen scientists to overcome the manpower bottleneck. The app will be applicable to all kind of analogue data and hence useful for numerous scientific fields.

Hannes Müller-Thomy (TU Braunschweig)

Detailed and accurate descriptions of the repositories are at the core of the re3data registry. The NFDI4Earth-developed Knowledge Hub, therefore, harvests metadata of German repositories in Earth System Sciences from re3data. As both parties have an interest in keeping the information in re3data comprehensive and up-to-date, we agreed during a first meeting in November to work together on this, e.g., implementing metadata quality checks on specific fields.

Additionally, NFDI4Earth will provide needs for potential metadata fields with respect to the NFDI4Earth label and service catalog requirement.

Re3data and NFDI4Earth will continue to exchange news, ideas and linking activities. 

The global DataCite community takes care of more than 50 million DOIs and ensures that research outputs and resources are openly available and well-connected. The DataCite released the new Metadata Schema 4.5 in January 2024, improving the discoverability and reusability. The Schema presents a list of key metadata properties selected for an accurate and consistent identification that can advance knowledge across and between disciplines.

Geo-INQUIRE (Geosphere INfrastructures for QUestions into Integrated REsearch) fosters excellent, interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research of the solid Earth, including land-sea-atmosphere interfaces. 

The access to unique high-level installations and experiments provided through Geo-INQUIRE is free of charge for the selected users and includes all costs necessary to perform the proposed research. Geo-INQUIRE is welcoming applications from researchers, technicians, students and other specialists working in the fields of research covered by the installations until 15 March 2024. Application for access should be submitted online through the Geo-INQUIRE website!

More information will be presented during the NFDI4Earth Online Coffee Lecture on 21 February 2024.

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Symposium 2024, in cooperation with the Open Science Conference, will take place on 21 - 23 October 2024 at Berlin under the patronage of the German Minister for Education and Research.

The event is being organised in coordination with the NFDI, in order to capitalize on the synergies between the EOSC and the 26 NFDI communities.