Constantly growing, collaboratively maintained wiki: The NFDI4Biodiversity Knowledge Base is online!

Where can I find detailed documentation on the tools and services Tools und Services offered by NFDI4Biodiversity? What is actually behind the network of data centers? And where can I find out more about the consortium's data management and support services? Our new knowledge database provides the answers.

The Knowledge Base, subtitled "Information and Services around Biodiversity Data", is a publicly accessible, collaboratively maintained wiki where information and documentation about NFDI4Biodiversity and the community can be found. In addition to a wide range of FAQs and resources relating to the research data management of biodiversity data, such as our legal podcast, there is also further information and documentation on the consortium's services.

Our personas – fictitious representatives of the consortium's target groups – provide users with orientation. To start with, we have focussed in particular on content for data manager Doro and post-doc Paul: Anyone looking for help with capturing, publishing or describing data follows scientist Paul, while data manager Doro is primarily interested in information on data management tools or technical documentation. The articles are also grouped thematically and by function, so that the relevant information can be found in many ways.

The data center network in the Knowledge Base

The ten data centers play a central role in the NFDI4Biodiversity infrastructure. They provide user support, data curation and archiving services via the Helpdesk, the DMP tool and the Data Submission and Brokerage Service. Descriptions and detailed profiles of the data centers can now be found in the Knowledge Base. There, users can find out which data centers belong to the network, what their focus is and which data is particularly relevant to them. There is also information on the type of services, the accepted file formats, the technical infrastructure and the data backup strategies. And if after reading this you are still unsure whether your own data will fit into the selected data center, or if you are generally interested in exchanging information about archiving processes: You can contact the respective data curators in our helpdesk directly via the pages.

Documentation of the technical infrastructure – the Research Data Commons

The Research Data Commons (RDC) form the common technical infrastructure of the NFDI4Biodiversity. It is designed to enable users to store and search data and work with biodiversity data from a variety of sources. Numerous components contribute to making this possible. What exactly is behind the Research Data Commons and which components are already available is covered in another section of the knowledge database. Here the user will not only find the overall concept of the RDC, but also visions for the future and the tools and services associated with the RDC that are offered and developed by our partners.

The Knowledge Base should continue to grow - together with the community

Our knowledge base is still in its infancy. Together with the further development in NFDI4Biodiversity, it will also continue to grow - and will be inspired above all by the requests and topics of the community in and around the consortium. Contributions and feedback will therefore be a major component in the further development of the knowledge base. Via https://kb.gfbio.org/display/KB/Contribute, it is already possible to become part of the writing community and contribute articles or topics. Feedback on whether the resources provided are helpful, whether areas are missing or whether information is presented in an understandable way is also essential for us.

We look forward to further developing the Knowledge Base together with you!

PS: If the knowledge base leaves any questions unanswered, we are of course still happy to receive inquiries via our helpdesk.