National Research Data Infrastructure for Interdisciplinary Energy System Research

nfdi4energy is a new consortium recommended for funding in the third and final funding round of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). It focuses on energy system research which heavily rely on modelling and (co-)simulation-based approaches. Tracking of models together with all data creates a complex software and data management challenge, which needs to be addressed in each research project. Therefore, the handling of research data and software presents a key motivation for nfdi4energy.

To this end, nfdi4energy covers the whole research and transfer cycle of projects in energy system research ranging from (1) identifying relevant competencies for a research field; (2) defining relevant scenarios and experimental setup; (3) integrating models and data, coupling tools and laboratories; (4) extracting results, facilitating public consultation; to (5) identifying research challenges for follow-up activities.

We define the following key objectives for nfdi4energy: (1) Establish common research community services for FAIR data, models, and processes in energy system research and motivate its use in the community. (2) Allow traceability, reproducibility, and transparency of results for the scientific community as well as for the society, improving the overall FAIRness. (3) Enable and motivate the involvement of society for the identification and solution of relevant research questions. (4) Promote better collaboration and knowledge transfer between scientific research institutes and business partners via FAIR research data management. (5) Simplify identification, integration, and coordination of simulation-based models. (6) Integrate the provided services for energy system research within the wider NFDI ecosystem to improve cross-domain collaboration.

With our poster we would like to present the general ideas behind nfdi4nergy and discuss possible connection points to energy system research, especially reflecting the needs of the research community.