NFDI Section ELSA "What is ELSA?"

The German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) facilitates cross-disciplinary cooperation between all members of the NFDI consortia through the collaborative work of the five NFDI sections. The Section ELSA provides a platform for discussion and exchange of expertise on the ethical, legal, and social aspects of research data management (RDM) as well as the re-use of research data, thus contributing to the development of sustainable infrastructures. Additionally, ELSA plays a vital role in emphasising the importance of legal compliance and raising awareness of ethical and societal aspects within the research process, while also contributing to the development of legal standards that align with the needs and technological advancements of the research community. At the heart of this initiative lies a commitment to turning community needs into actionable outcomes by identifying diverse legal needs of consortia and shaping them into shared practical guidelines. Dedicated Working groups within ELSA drive progress on key topics, creating helpful outputs by presenting complex topics in a generally understandable way, while also designing blueprints and highlighting best practices in close collaboration with the stakeholders [1]. The section not only generates ready-to-use materials for researchers in form of recommendations, decision trees [2], [3] and factsheets, but also plays an active part in shaping the legal framework for RDM by issuing statements [4], [5] and comments [6], [7] on European and national regulations. To ensure an NFDI-wide reach of the recommendations, ELSA members cooperate with other sections and all interested consortia [5], [6], organizing workshops, conducting surveys and needs assessments of the various disciplines. One such joint effort is the on-going work of the Research Data Law (Forschungsdatengesetz) subgroup of the Task Force Policy Paper, which is actively involved in the regulatory discussions with the involved institutions and is drafting an NFDI comment on the newly proposed Research Data Law. Currently, there are three ELSA Working Groups (WG) collaborating on various topics: The WG Data Protection facilitates exchange on FAIR data management and data protection regulations within the NFDI community, with a factsheet series on the same topic as the most recent soon-to-be-published outcome; The WG Ethics aims to develop useful knowledge and guidance to help address ethical questions alongside its current subgroups, which focus on Dark Data and the CARE Principles; The WG LARA (License Agreement Rule Automation) is the newly formed working group that will be focusing specifically on tools, which aim to help researchers choose an appropriate license for their outputs (data, code etc). The ELSA Section will continue to support and foster cross-consortia collaboration on pressing legal and ethical issues of RDM, while working on improving the visibility of the section by streamlining the website, outputs and the ELSA concept [1], in order to keep the information precise, relevant and up-to-date.