Streamlined Support: Ten NFDI Helpdesks Strengthen Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

What happens when data management questions span multiple scientific disciplines? Ten NFDI consortia have found an answer: the Geo-Chem-Life Science Helpdesk Cluster – a close-knit collaboration that transcends disciplinary boundaries.

It all started with a simple inquiry: A researcher, looking for a suitable data center to make his image data openly and sustainably accessible, reached out to the FAIRagro NFDI consortium. “The request was highly interesting – but the data were thematically a better fit for NFDI4Biodiversity. So, we forwarded it accordingly,” recalls Marcus Schmidt, coordinator of the Data Steward Service Center, FAIRagro’s helpdesk.

In cases like this, the helpdesks of the NFDI consortia play a pivotal role: They serve as the first point of contact for researchers seeking guidance in managing their research data – from choosing the right repositories to navigating data protection issues. The National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is a collective of discipline-specific consortia working together to ensure research data are sustainably accessible, well-structured, and reusable. Initially, helpdesks operated largely within the confines of their respective disciplines – until now.

The forwarded inquiry led to a consultation on structuring, archiving, and publishing the data – a process that proved beneficial for everyone involved. “First and foremost, we were able to help the researcher find a suitable data repository and make the data available to the wider research community – all without him needing to reach out to multiple places. At the same time, the consortia learned more about each other’s areas of expertise, and most importantly: we strengthened our collaboration,” says Judith Engel, co-coordinator of the NFDI4Biodiversity Helpdesk.

This experience sparked the idea of bringing together the helpdesks of related consortia – both literally and figuratively. In May 2024, ten representatives from geoscience, chemistry, and life science NFDI consortia met in Bremen to explore closer cooperation in user support.

This meeting marked the birth of what is now an active collaboration: All participants agreed that sharing knowledge and experiences, and forwarding user requests with their specific needs in mind, would benefit everyone. Given the growing complexity and interdisciplinarity of research inquiries, it became clear that tailored support services can only emerge through close cooperation.

There was also a shared commitment to keeping the collaboration as straightforward and efficient as possible. A joint workflow for forwarding anonymized inquiries was established, and a shared chat group now facilitates quick, informal exchanges among experts. For those providing consultations, this is a major relief – since research data management (RDM) often requires highly customized, discipline-specific support. A broad network significantly simplifies the handling of complex cases.

Since then, 13 interdisciplinary requests have already been handled collaboratively – including those related to repository referrals, data management services, and legal questions.

This dynamic and collaborative form of working together has now been formally anchored: In a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), ten consortia – DataPLANT, FAIRagro, GHGA, NFDI4Biodiversity, NFDI4BioImage, NFDI4Chem, NFDI4Earth, NFDI4Health, NFDI4Immuno, and NFDI4Microbiota – commit to a long-term network. Under the title Geo-Chem-Life Science Helpdesk Cluster, they are creating an interdisciplinary support structure for researchers with cross-disciplinary needs.

The goal of the cluster is to ensure more targeted initial contact between researchers and the NFDI, to bundle resources more efficiently, and to make expertise from different fields more flexibly accessible. Each consortium contributes personnel and nominates at least one representative to actively participate in the network. Additional consortia from adjacent research areas are welcome to join the cluster.

The full text of the MoU can be found here and has also been published on Zenodo:

Memorandum of Understanding of NFDI consortia from Earth-, Chemical and Life Sciences to support a network called the Geo-Chem-Life Science Helpdesk Cluster, Version 1 (Bernard, L., Brück, M., Busse, C., Engel, J., Eufinger, J., Ewert, F., Fluck, J., Förstner, K., Fürst, J., Gauza, H., Getzlaff, K., Glöckner, F. O., Hunold, J., Koepler, O., Krooß, K., Lindstädt, B., McHardy, A. C., Mehrtens, H., Rey-Mazon, E., … Wetzker, C.), 2025. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15065070