Creating Synergies: Successful collaborations between federal state initiatives and NFDI consortia

Back in 2021, the federal state initiatives and regional research data management (RDM) stakeholders outlined the cooperation between the NFDI consortia and the RDM state initiatives in a joint plea [1]. It became clear that the RDM state initiatives can act as an intermediary between universities and the NFDI consortia. In this contribution, we will demonstrate how successful collaboration between federal state initiatives and NFDI can be implemented. We will present three concrete examples that highlight the added value of these partnerships. The information platform forschungsdaten.info, operated by bwFDM [2], has been organising the webinar series forschungsdaten.info live since 2020. The series addresses current developments and topics in RDM of broad, transregional relevance and invites experts for presentations. It addresses a broad target audience from researchers, data stewards, other infrastructure employees and members of the general public from the whole DACHLI area. Since 2023, the series has always reached more than 50 participants, 111 participants attended the session on Wikidata as a collaborative information resource for RDM and 242 participants the webinar on data rights and ownership. Some of the latest events, were dedicated to the services of individual NFDI consortia, e. g. KonsortSWD and BERD@NFDI. The HeFDI Code School [4], organised by the Hessian state initiative, conveys basic and advanced programming skills free of charge. The course series was offered for the first time in 2023. It consists of a basic and an advanced track, both of which are taught as hands-on online workshop series.They are primarily directed at doctoral students and post-docs. The basic track is offered in cooperation with NFDI4Earth and the advanced track with NFDI4ING and Suresoft. HeFDI provides the technical as well as organisational framework and advertises the offer throughout Germany, while representatives of the NFDI consortia conduct the courses. This ensures both the professional quality and a wide dissemination. With the FDM-Werkstatt [5], the state initiative fdm.nrw has established a format that is specifically aimed at data stewards and researchers. The 2.5-day face-to-face event focuses on networking and hands-on work with various RDM tools, from eLabFTW, ARC and OMERO to the Open Science Framework. The workshop topics are submitted and organised by members of the RDM-community. The entire event is organised jointly with a university in NRW and a third partner; this year at the University of Münster and with NFDI4BIOIMAGE. This format attracts a broad range of participants, expanding the outreach and prominence of the hosting parties. Based on these specific examples, it is clear that cooperation between NFDI consortia and federal state initiatives create added value. Already established formats can be effectively utilised to reach desired target audiences, while local and subject specific RDM actors connect with each other. Comparable collaborations are also conceivable in other areas. The federal state initiatives are open to explore these opportunities together with interested parties of the NFDI.