National Research Data Infrastructure for the Research of Microbiota (NFDI4Microbiota) providing access to data, infrastructure, tools and methodologies

Poster presentation of Cordula Hege on the 18. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Epidemiologie (DGEpi) on the 26. - 28. September 2023 in Würzburg. 

Next-generation sequencing and multi-omics help to explore the link between the microbiome and epidemiology The created wealth of data is not yet enough used and re-used. The NFDI (National Research Data Infrastructure) wants to change this by developing a comprehensive research data management.  NFDI4Microbiota aims to support the microbiological community by giving access to data, analysis services, training and standards.

The NFDI4Microbiota consortium builds and provides a computational infrastructure and analytical workflows required to store, access, process, and interpret various microbiome-related data types. NFDI4Microbiota works on developing and implementing software and standardized workflows for users to analyse their datasets (i.e. for quality control, data processing, statistical analyses, and visualization). 

 The German microbial research will be boosted by training and community building activities, and by creating a cloud-based system that will make the storage, integration, and analysis of microbial data, especially omics data, consistent, reproducible, and accessible.  So, NFDI4Microbiota promotes the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) and Open Science.

 NFDI4Microbiota consists of ten partner institutions, is backed by five professional societies and more than 50 participants. Several workshops and training events for the community have already taken place and more will follow. An ambassador program connects the consortia with the participants, thereby helping to identify the needs of their local community. Technical solutions are developed, tested and refined in several use cases from different fields of microbiology. All relevant information and services are made available via the web portal.

 Producers and users of data will benefit from FAIR data being more likely to be cited and integrated into a wider microbial inquiry. The current data parasitism would shift to a future data mutualism benefiting all partners.