Science advances when knowledge is openly shared. In response to the growing geo-societal challenges of our planet, and in light of the https://sdgs.un.org/goalsUN Sustainable Development Goals, trustworthy science increasingly requires the open sharing of well-documented data and their provenance in an ethical manner. This requires a cultural and systemic change that evolves current practices and that promotes solutions for data sharing within and beyond the Earth System Sciences. Only by working together as a community can this happen.
At its core, Earth System Sciences aims to unravel the complex processes that drive the Earth as a dynamic system. This includes the fluxes of matter and energy in the five main spheres - the geosphere, hydrosphere (including the cryosphere), atmosphere, biosphere and anthroposphere (cf. Leopoldina’s report Earth System Science: Discovery, Diagnosis, and Solutions in Times of Global Change).
Data acquisition, simulation, integration, and analysis are crucial to understanding these complex processes. The Earth System Sciences community already embraces many Open Science practices, including making its many types of research outputs findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable for humans and machines (as stated in the The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship). Equal priority should be given to data management and analysis tools that enable data-driven methods. Efficient and effective use of research outputs, facilities, and funding, as well as appropriate reward systems and recognition of all research activities are equally important parts of Earth System Sciences data activities.
NFDI4Earth - the consortium for the Earth System Sciences within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) - aims to become a central facilitator for research data management in the German Earth System Sciences community, enabling more open knowledge sharing. The mission of NFDI4Earth is to provide easy, efficient, open and, as far as possible, unrestricted and standardised access to all relevant Earth system data, scientific data management and data analysis services, and to ensure sustainable and quality-assured research data management infrastructures.
This commitment will help to engage the NFDI4Earth community in shaping, promoting, and implementing the NFDI4Earth agenda. In the longer term, the results of this work will also help to drive the much needed change in the way research is evaluated, as expressed in the DORA and CoARA declarations.
NFDI4Earth invites institutions and individual researchers, laboratories, infrastructure providers, publishers, academic societies, government agencies, administrations, industry, funders, and research organisations (see the
list of
signatories) to sign the following statement of commitment and become ambassadors for change towards more FAIR and Open data practices in Earth System Sciences. To support this shift, the NFDI4Earth website provides
background information
and guidance for different stakeholders.
Sign the Commitment at http://nfdi4earth.de/commit .
Signatories of the NFDI4Earth FAIRness and Openness Commitment pledge to support NFDI4Earth’s mission, products, and services. The signature of members and/or representatives of the Earth System Sciences community is a public signal of agreement with the goals and values of the Commitment. By collectively supporting the Commitment, the signatories realise NFDI4Earth as a community of practice, taking into account the full range of expertise and all relevant user groups of Earth System Sciences for a sustainable shift towards more FAIR and Open Research.
As signatories...
This work has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the project NFDI4Earth (TA4 M4.2, DFG project no. 460036893, https://www.nfdi4earth.de/) within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, https://www.nfdi.de/).
We thank all contributors from the NFDI4Earth community and beyond for their questions, feedback, edits, and their inspirational work that this commitment is grounded on. People who have agreed are listed in alphabetical order on the website and as contributors on the Zenodo record using CRediT. However, we extend our sincere thanks to all unnamed contributors for their inputs, be they small, indirect, or given in passing, from the NFDI4Earth community and beyond, especially the members of the NFDI4Earth steering group and the participants of the in-person workshop “Towards a Cultural Change in ESS RDM Workshop“ at the 3rd NFDI4Earth Plenary in Dresden in May 2024.
Note: The list below will be updated as confirmations by contributors are collected!
Full citation: NFDI4Earth Consortium. 2024. NFDI4Earth FAIRness and Openness Commitment (NFDI4EarthDeliverable D4.2.1). NFDI4Earth Community on Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10123880.
You can provide anonymous feedback at https://redcap.zih.tu-dresden.de/redcap/surveys/?s=YKTL79MPMEHDTMAK.
Daniel Nüst | TUD Dresden University of Technology | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0024-5046
Jörg Seegert | TUD Dresden University of Technology | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9357-2830
Chair of Geoinformatics, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Prof. Lars Bernard) | https://tu-dresden.de/bu/umwelt/geo/geoinformatik/
Carsten Keßler | Bochum University of Applied Sciences | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9724-820X
Farzaneh Sadeghi | Bochum University of Applied Sciences | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7920-4289
Jie Dodo Xu | Goethe-Universität Frankfurt | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8239-2076
Anna Brauer | TUD Dresden University of Technology |https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7092-1492
Auriol Degbelo | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5087-8776
Jonas Grieb | Senckenberg - Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8876-1722
Najla Rettberg | TUD Dresden University of Technology | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1888-2294
Dominik Hezel | Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5059-2281
Sheryl Singerling
Andreas Hübner |Freie Universität Berlin | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7342-9789
Sabine Timpf | Head of research group, University of Augsburg | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7964-4110
Avishai Abbo |Postdoctoral fellow, Goethe University Frankfurt | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3660-1433
Jonas Kuppler| Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum
Fabian Gans | Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry|
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9614-0435
Melanie Lorenz | Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9496-342X
Frank Oliver Glöckner | Head of PANGAEA | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8528-9023
Tom Niers | TUD Dresden University of Technology | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5746-8590
Annette Strauch-Davey
Your name, group, or organisation is missing? Sign the commitment here: nfdi4earth.de/commit.
Do you have any problems with signing or is your data incorrect? Please contact the NFDI4Earth Helpdesk at helpdesk@nfdi4earth.de.
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