Bugs in the cloud: Leveraging the infrastructure, services and expert network of NFDI4Biodiversity to provision 3D scans of valuable insect collections

German natural history museums store more than 50 million prepared insects. These collections are extremely valuable for ecological and evolutionary biology research, as they document the regional and global biodiversity of insects over the last few centuries [1]. Type species are particularly important for taxonomists as they represent the morphological basis for the description and naming of the respective species [2]. However access to these collections might be restricted, due to different reasons, for example to avoid damaging the delicate specimens. The DFG-funded project 'Three-dimensional Digitisation of Insect Collections' (GEPRIS project number 495869174) set out to provide high-quality images and three-dimensional models of selected insect collections from seven natural history museums in Germany. The project will deliver images and 3D models for roughly 6000 specimens, including taxonomic and provenance metadata, as well as dedicated tooling for exploring the data in combined 3D and 2D view. Roughly 400 focus-stacking images are generated for each specimen using a novel device that digitizes individually pinned insects automatically, on all sides, with continuous depth of field and calibrated perspective [3]. This allows the creation of geometrically correct 3D models that can be used to calculate surface area and volume - something not possible with the preserved specimen [4]. All the data and metadata generated during the project, roughly 30 Terabyte, will be published following the FAIR data principles and be made available for researchers and the public. As a data management partner in this project, GFBio e.V. leverages the infrastructure, services and expert network of NFDI4Biodiversity, where GFBio is the coordinating partner and contributes to the development of the cloud-based service infrastructure (Research Data Commons). In particular, the following benefits from the close collaboration with NFDI were implemented for the entomology community: The data portal acting as central hub for interaction with and retrieval of the datasets is deployed on the cloud infrastructure of NFDI4Biodiversity, specifically de.NBI Cloud in Giessen, ensuring optimal use of resources with minimal effort overhead. The data portal uses Aruna [5] as its storage infrastructure via an upload component specifically developed to optimize the transfer from the data providers. Aruna is co-developed by NFDI4Biodiverstiy and NFDI4Microbiota and is deployed as a central storage orchestration for the Research Data Commons [6]. This allows the project to benefit from additional services from the NFDI4Biodiversity service portfolio (e.g. analysis pipelines) without the need to transfer large amounts of data. Once the data are made publicly available, the same options will be available for anyone with access to NFDI resources and services. The long-term archival and publication of the data is coordinated with the GFBio Data Centers and the GFBio Data Submission and Brokerage Service, providing high quality of curation for the metadata and efficiency in the data transfers. In summary, we successfully utilize NFDI resources and know-how to build dedicated solutions for biodiversity research (sub-)communities that enable the best possible handling of their valuable research data, in the hope of its FAIR reuse and application to bring the fascinating world of insects to the general public.