2025-11-05
The 5th edition of the International Data Week (IDW) took place on 13-16 October in Brisbane, Australia and we were delighted to represent Base4NFDI with an info booth during this diverse and international event. Four days packed with inspiring keynotes, hands-on sessions, constructive discussions, and – of course – a flavour of Australia’s fauna. Read on to find out about some of the highlights.
Credit: Melina Jander, Base4NFDIOffice
Digital Research Infrastructures – Common challenges on a global scale
In her welcome speech, Rosie Hicks (ARDC) pointed at the importance of getting together globally: “Everyone in this room is facing the same global challenge, and that inspires me. We come together to share, learn, connect and advance the data journey to solve the big challenges.” Doing the opening session’s title “CAREful Indigenous Data Governance” justice, the three keynote speakers – Niklas Labba, Marcia Langton, Alfred J.P. Lin – presented interesting examples of the challenges in handling indigenous data, e.g. through the SODA initiative (Sámi Ownership and Data Access) that aims at advancing indigenous data sovereignty for the Sámi people across Lapland, Scandinavia.
As for our representation of NFDI, it happened more than once that we were asked how NFDI, a national research data infrastructure, is relevant internationally. In explaining that NFDI is not only working towards international interoperability with EOSC and beyond but that it is also comparable to initiatives like ARDC, it didn’t take long to find commonalities in the challenges digital research infrastructures face. Of course there is always the question of funding, followed by the availability of other resources like experienced staff, technical solutions and computational power – aspects that also beg the question on how sustainability is ensured. Australia’s current approach is to ensure public sector investments in digital research infrastructures, which might also be a scenario for the future of NFDI.
While we can draw some comparisons between European and the Australian approach, it was noteworthy that especially representatives of the Global South were very interested in how NFDI works and which obstacles we are facing. As knowledge transfer across communities with endeavours in different maturity stages is always useful, we might in the future not only strengthen our European interoperability, but also establish communication channels with stakeholders outside Europe.
Credit: Melina Jander, Base4NFDIOffice
Engagement with RDA
This year’s IDW was, as usual, combined with an RDA Plenary, namely its 25th edition. The active Working and Interest Groups invited both its group members and the broader audience to get together for updates, feedback, and workshops. The variety of topics was very broad, including National PID Strategies, Artificial Intelligence and Data Visitation, Data Steward Career Tracks or Uptake of Digital Research Infrastructures, to name but a few. With the great offer of many parallel tracks, it was impossible to join every interesting session but especially RDA’s plenary session on the “Global Impact of the Research Data Alliance” gave a nice overview of what RDA has achieved recently and how to further build on these achievements. The successful adoption of RDA’s GORC model (Global Open Research Commons) is especially noteworthy, e.g. when looking at its political impact: Recently, the European Commission has started to recognise models like GORC as “policy-adjacent”, leading to such models having an impact on funding of open science within the Horizon Europe programme. Furthermore, Finnish and Dutch organisations are using the GORC typology to identify efforts and activities across different areas comprised in the GORC model which leads to alignment of national infrastructures with the EOSC ecosystem – potentially a way to go for NFDI as well.
Base4NFDI was not only represented via the aforementioned info booth, but also with some colleagues active in RDA Groups, e.g. Antje Manske who gave a talk on “Practical use of AI (LLMs) in Instructional Design” as part of the Education and Training on Handling of Research Data Interest Group. Showcasing Base4NFDI’s involvement in RDA and its relevance to international discussions and developments was a nice way to expand our network and potentially get involved in future endeavours.
Credit: Rosie Hicks, ARDC
To summarise…
IDW 2025 was a truly unique experience. Opening the conversation about NFDI and our Base4NFDI services to a global audience gives us the chance to further connect with other initiatives, learn from each other, and work on the common challenges together. Strengthening and widening our international network, e.g. via getting involved in (more) RDA working and interest groups, and working towards international interoperability can be seen as the core take-aways of the event.
The next IDW will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in 2027. Until then, NFDI will evolve even more, political strategies will (hopefully) be clearer and the basic services will be potentially ready to use. With this outlook, NFDI will be able to contribute to the upcoming IDW even more, and we are very much looking forward to getting together with this lively community again!
Credit: Melina Jander, Base4NFDIOffice
