On June 18 2024, DataPLANT sent the letter of intent to the DFG, which is the prerequisite for submitting a follow-up proposal. We plan to largely retain the structure of the task areas, but make adjustments in a few areas. We are aiming to involve the community more closely, following the reviewers' recommendations for focus and consolidation. For this reason, the community has been expanded regarding the number of participants and participating institutions. It is intended to provide geostrategic coverage and data steward support across Germany for support and assistance. We also want to take up the ongoing developments in the NFDI with regard to basic services and network as well as coordinate more closely with the other life science consortia and tackle certain tasks together. To ensure adherence to the community needs, the common NFDI goals and the reviewer comments, DataPLANT will establish focus circles that span all task areas, facilitating the implementation of overarching objectives. These focus circles comprise Education & Best Practices, Community Interaction, Open Engagement & Sustainability, and (Inter)National Integration. They will enhance communication and management, ensuring that goals are competently supported by experts from each task area working together.
DataPLANT maintains strong links with other NFDI consortia, ensuring a unified approach to advancing RDM in and beyond the life sciences. For the second funding period, agreements are being prepared for a special NFDI life sciences interest group to harmonize RDM strategies involving biological data. Closer cooperation is intended with NFDI4Biodiversity, NFDI4Microbiota, FAIRagro and the methods oriented NFDI4BIOIMAGE. de.NBI resources provide the bases to form a larger life sciences service ecosystem.
Therefore, all DataPLANT cloud-oriented and modular services can be hosted by any institution, consortium and with a basic set of open-source services. To expand service offerings and integrate into the evolving NFDI infrastructure, a dedicated focus circle has been formed. Other areas of cooperation are joint helpdesk and consultation services, providing comprehensive user support in areas where one consortium is strongly represented but others aren’t. Furthermore, jointly organized events and coordinated participation in key conferences as well as shared knowledge bases, training materials, roadshows for life sciences communities, or a joint news desk are ideas we are thinking about. This also includes cross-community approaches for joint tool development and consolidating community resources. Common interests comprise the application of Bioschema.org, and collaborations on ontology development in the metadata section.