The national research data infrastructure for Earth System Sciences NFDI4Earth: an approach to realize international interoperability

Earth System Scientists (ESS) work in various research fields spanning from atmospheric research, to land use and oceanographic research using a multitude of data formats, vocabularies and sources for their data. However, data are mostly not presented in a concise and holistic way. Thus, ESS still are forced to deal with different interfaces, searching for relevant information and tools. The National Research Data Infrastructure for Earth System Sciences NFDI4Earth was created to address these issues. With building a platform connecting a large group of sources for data in Earth system sciences, including expert information and educational resources. The OneStop4All provides a user-friendly single-point-of-entry from which all resources can be addressed. This entry-point is enriched with a living handbook and educational resources and the User Support Network provides additional help or the user.

To realize the envisioned level of interoperability, agreements and partnerships have to be established at several levels, which will be the visualized on the poster presentation. On the political level, agreements on modes of participation, a common adoption of quality standards, as well as a proper embedding into the national and international ecosystem have to be constituted. At the same time, a high level of interoperability requires widely accepted identifiers such as DOI, IGSN and other PID services to identify objects across organizational boundaries. On an intermediate level, a jointly accepted data-centric architecture requires to agree on standardized interfaces, harmonization of approaches to metadata standards. Finally, on the technical level, systems need to be integrated, identification and access services have to provide a user experience with as few system disruptions as possible. 

Hereby, NFDI4Earth follows the principle of making use of what has been established by the consortium partners such as the DataHub of the Helmholtz Research Field Earth & Environment, as well as following the recommendations of international initiatives, like OneGeochemistry to ensure international connectivity. In particular, the approach is guided by the FAIR principles and full embracement of Open Science (see the NFDI4Earth Fairness and Openness Commitment). Being distributed by design, the approach is open to allow new contributors and members to join-in and engage in this joint endeavour.