Core Project 4 - Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research - Central Data Management

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Birgitta König-Ries
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
• Term: since 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 193925721

The importance of data and their re-use in synthesis and long-term studies is very well acknowledged in the Biodiversity Exploratories. A data policy was already adopted at the start of the project and a central database was implemented at the beginning of the first phase. The early provision of the database incl. an active curation of the datasets and a consistent observance and incorporation of user needs and requirements have resulted in high acceptance. The central data management provides an environment for data interchange and simple data re-use, stimulating and facilitating synthesis. The central database also provides the IT- infrastructure for efficient field resource management needed by the local management teams and the Biodiversity Exploratory Office, as well as a tool to compute the Land Use Intensity Index, LUI, for grasslands, a parameter that is used by many groups. The database secures the interpretability of data and provides the means for data quality control. It functions both as a work-in-progress storage and as a temporary archive. Since 2021, the BEXIS2 software has been used for this purpose, which is supplemented by self-created modules. This proposal shall secure the continuation of this strong and, for the overall success of the Exploratories, essential work. In addition to continued provisioning of the infrastructure and user support (in particular with respect to synthesis) the work in the new funding period will focus on the following topcis: development of further research supporting tools, further expansion of the FAIRness of data and the repository also through the increased inclusion of persistent identifiers, and the introduction of data management plans for all funded projects.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1374: Biodiversity Exploratories