Digital preservation and archiving in the NFDI - Between established standards, missing awareness and approaches to open questions

Digital preservation of research data, meaning the responsible preservation of data reusability and accessibility beyond changes in technology, standards, organizations, funding and more, is highly relevant for good research practices. Loss of research data not only impedes reuse for further research but also research reproducibility, verification of results, provenance, and resolving citations and evidence trails in the long-term. While digital preservation standards and certification (e. g. ISO 14721 [1], [2], ISO 16363 [3], the CoreTrustSeal [4], DIN 31644 [5], the nestor seal [6], NDSA levels of digital preservation [7]), tools (e. g. JHOVE [8], DROID [9], Siegfried [10]), and initiatives (e. g. Open Preservation Initiative [11], Digital Preservation Coalition [12]) in part existed since early 2000, a preliminary survey among NFDI consortia showed highly variable awareness with some large gaps but also a need for digital preservation support or solutions [13]. Two workshops, one of these or-ganized by NFDI working group Long Term Preservation and Access (LTA), also reinforced that structures, recommendations and solutions in NFDI are missing for topics such as criteria for selecting data for preservation (appraisal), resolving and documenting long-term preserva-tion responsibility, and approaches to software preservation [14], [15], [16]. Literature also indi-cates that research data quality control, specifically various file errors and insufficiently speci-fied formats and standards are increasingly becoming a challenge for digital preservation per-sonnel [17], [18]. The working group LTA in the NFDI section Common Infrastructures works on these identified topics on a cross-disciplinary level, consults NFDI consortia regarding questions on data preservation, promotes existing digital preservation standards, develops recommendations, maintains contact to other initiatives working on similar topics and intends to provide input for Research Data Commons development [19]. Among the projects of the working group is a rec-ommendation for a DataCite element allowing documentation of preservation status and re-sponsibility of published research data [20], active work introducing preservation into the DMP template framework together with DMP4NFDI and a DFG funding proposal for a preservation (LTA) consultation service. Via its members it also maintains contact with topics developed on the EOSC-level and in nestor - network of expertise in long-term storage of digital resources in Germany, such as selection criteria for preservation [21], [22]. Presentation of the topic is in-tended for the cross-section track "RDM in Context", giving an overview of the status of digital preservation in NFDI as determined by the preliminary survey and current projects for research data infrastructures developed in the working group LTA.