FAU CDI as a Project Partner for FAIR Data Management from the Beginning
We support researchers in management, analysis, and publication of research data on material objects.
Affiliated as a participant in Task Area (TA) 6 “Qualification, Integration, Harmonisation,” the FAU Competence Center Research Data and Information at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg works closely with the Klassik Stiftung Weimar to develop an integrated knowledge base about objects. Based on existing models and standards, a CIDOC CRM-based data model is developed to describe and represent object biographies. The data model for object biographies is tested in a WissKI instance using use cases, including the so-called iron lung of Friedrich Albert von Zenkers, whose biography is reconstructed in close collaboration with the FAU Institute of Anatomy, or the Behaim Globe of 1492, the oldest surviving globe, which is currently housed in the German Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. Further object biographies are being developed in collaboration with provenance researchers, collection and subject-area experts across Germany.
NFDI4Objects is a consortium of leading research institutions, museums, archives, and universities in the field of material culture and object research. Together we work to build a sustainable research data infrastructure for archaeology and object-based sciences. The interdisciplinary team of scientists, developers, and data experts develops standards, tools, and services for research data management—from field data collection to long-term archiving and reuse.
This research environment is based on the WissKI software and serves to implement and test the viability of use cases. The templates for the two knowledge graphs and the underlying Objects Ontology are regularly published on GitHub in the current development state.
Duration: 2023–2028
Funding: DFG
The SODa Collaborative Project Develops and Teaches Data Literacy
Academic collections at colleges and universities are vital infrastructures for research, teaching, and knowledge transfer. With over 1,200 collections spanning nearly all academic disciplines, Germany’s higher education landscape possesses a unique knowledge resource and a significant data repository with enormous potential for both current and future research questions. Furthermore, these collections preserve an important cultural and scientific heritage, featuring holdings that are often unique, exemplary, and exceptional. The German Science Council has emphasized their extraordinary significance for science and strongly urged that they be expanded as research infrastructures.
However, the diverse potential of scientific collections can only be fully realized if the resources and opportunities for digitization are optimally utilized. SODa imparts the data competencies necessary and useful for research in and with scientific collections and continues to develop these competencies in a transdisciplinary and practice-oriented manner. The Data Competency Center facilitates the exploration, discussion, and further development of standards, best practices, and new methods in collection-related research data management, research data analysis, evaluation, and utilization, as well as data-based collection and object research. It promotes interdisciplinary networking, the development and expansion of collaborations, and is actively involved in research collaborations, standards-development bodies, and the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI).
SODa is a consortium project of Koordinierungsstelle für Wissenschaftliche Universitätssammlungen in Deutschland at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Stabsstelle Sammlungen und Museen, FAU Competence Center for Research Data and Information , Lehrstuhl für Informatik 5, Lehrstuhl für Informatik 9, Interessengemeinschaft für semantische Datenverarbeitung e.V. Germanischen Nationalmuseums Nürnberg Museums- und Kulturinformatik).
Duration: 2023-2026
Funding: BMFTR
The extensive, globally significant research collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin can be described as an archive of knowledge that helps answer questions about the past, present, and future. At the same time, however, the history of the research institution and the collection is inextricably linked to the history of colonialism. The project “Research and Responsibility: Virtual Access to Integrated Fossil and Archival Material from the German Tendaguru Expedition (1909–1913)” is part of the museum’s efforts to achieve transparency and accessibility regarding collections from colonial contexts and to develop international collaborations with partners in the regions of origin of the objects.
The goal is to build a contextualized digital collection—the Tendaguru Digital Archive—by consolidating digital content (digital object models, data, images and documents, archival material, findings, and publications) from the GTE into a single data platform. The data platform will be accessible to researchers globally and across disciplines and will comply with the FAIR and CARE data principles. The worldwide availability of the data will serve as a resource for various communities in all countries to develop their own research approaches or to use the data for public outreach for various purposes, and will support every individual in their research or approach, thereby promoting equal opportunities in research in the natural sciences and the humanities.
The platform is based on WissKI and is operated by IGSD e.V. The FAU CDI has been a project partner since 2026 and is responsible for ontology and data model development.
Duration: 2023–2026
Funding: DFG