Millions of euros in funding for data management in physics

The Joint Science Conference of the German Federal and State Governments has agreed to fund the two consortia DAPHNE4NFDI and PUNCH4NFDI to an amount of €14 to €20 million each. Around €2 million will go to the University of Siegen.

Research success for the Department of Physics at the University of Siegen. In its meeting on July 2, 2021, the Joint Science Conference of the Federal and State Governments (GWK) agreed to fund the two consortia DAPHNE4NFDI and PUNCH4NFDI as part of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). The goal of these consortia is to make research data from photon and neutron research on the one hand and particle, astroparticle, hadron and nuclear physics, and astronomy on the other transparent and permanently available. On October 1, the consortia will be able commence with their work.

With Prof. Christian Gutt acting as co-spokesperson, the Department of Physics at the University of Siegen is taking part in DAPHNE4NFDI. Prof. Ivor Fleck is coordinating the participation of Siegen's physics department in the PUNCH4NFDI consortium. Both projects will be funded with approximately €14 to €20 million over the next five years. Of this total, approximately €2 million will go to the University of Siegen. Following an evaluation, another five years of funding may follow.

"Making research data sustainably available will give an enormous boost to science as a whole. This applies not only to physics, but also promises major synergies, especially at the interfaces with other disciplines," says Prof. Gutt. "Our consortium will provide 100 petabytes (the equivalent of 100 billion megabytes) of data every year, for example about the structures of proteins or nanomaterials – data which will be subsequently available throughout Europe. We can then use machine learning methods to sift through this treasure trove of data and make targeted predictions as to new materials and their properties."

Founded in 2020, the National Research Data Infrastructure association is a science-driven initiative founded to systematically tap into research data from the German science system, network it, and use it sustainably. For this purpose, the data is to be managed according to the FAIR principles (FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). In addition, links are to be established with corresponding European and international initiatives in the field of data management.

Particularly in view of the fact that data looks different and is collected and stored in completely different ways depending on the different research disciplines, the NFDI is organized as a network of independent consortia that are selected by the federal and state governments for funding in a competitive process in three application rounds, with the consortia receiving funding for up to ten years.

The DAPHNE4NFDI consortium stands for DAta from PHoton and Neutron Experiments for NFDI. It represents the various science communities that use data collected at large photon and neutron sources. DAPHNE4NFDI includes 18 partners in Germany representing both photon and neutron facilities, as well as the "power users" – university-based research groups, e.g. Siegen's physics department. In DAPHNE4NFDI, Prof. Gutt is coordinating, among other things, the international harmonization of research data, especially within Europe in the scope of the European Open Science Cloud.

PUNCH4NFDI represents the four research topics of particle physics, astroparticle physics, hadron and nuclear physics, and astronomy in the NFDI ("PUNCH" stands for "Particles, Universe, NuClei & Hadrons"). The consortium includes numerous partners from the Helmholtz Association, the Max Planck Society, the Leibniz Association, and universities. The work of PUNCH4NFDI focuses on novel methods of "big data" management, as well as "open data" and "open science".

DAPHNE4NFDI and PUNCH4NFDI collaborate with each other. In addition, close collaboration with other consortia from physics, chemistry, and engineering is planned to allow the effective exchange of research data.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Christian Gutt
Tel. 0271 740-3741
Email:  gutt@physik.uni-siegen.de