NFDI4Microbiota - National Research Data Infrastructure for Microbiota Research

• Subject Area: Biology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460129525

Microbes – bacteria, archaea, unicellular eukaryotes, and viruses – play an important role in human and environmental health. Growing awareness of this fact has led to a huge increase in microbiological research and applications in a variety of fields. Driven by technological advances that allow high-throughput molecular characterization of microbial species and communities, microbiological research now offers unparalleled opportunities to address current and emerging needs. As well as helping to address global health threats such as antimicrobial resistance and viral pandemics, it also has a key role to play in areas such as agriculture, waste management, water treatment, ecosystems remediation, and the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases. Reflecting this broad potential, billions of euros have been invested in microbiota research programs worldwide. Though run independently, many of these projects are closely related. However, Germany currently has no infrastructure to connect such projects or even compare their results. Thus, the potential synergy of data and expertise is being squandered. The goal of the NFDI4Microbiota consortium is to serve and connect this broad and heterogeneous research community by elevating availability and quality of research results through dedicated training, and facilitating the generation, management, interpretation, sharing, and re-use of microbial data. By this we will also foster interdisciplinary interactions between researchers. NFDI4Microbiota will achieve this by creating a German microbial research network through 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 across all areas of life sciences. In addition to increasing the quality of microbial research in Germany, its training program will support widespread and proper usage of these services. Through this dual emphasis on education and services, NFDI4Microbiota will ensure that microbial research in Germany is synergistic and efficient, and thus excellent.By creating a central resource for German microbial research, NDFDI4Microbiota will establish a connecting hub for all NFDI consortia that work with microbiological data, including GHGA, NFDI4Biodiversity, NFDI4Agri and several others. NFDI4Microbiota will provide non-“microbial”-specialists from these consortia with direct and easy access to the necessary expertise and infrastructure in microbial research in order to facilitate their daily work and enhance their research. The links forged through NFDI4Microbiota will not only increase the synergy between NFDI consortia, but also elevate the overall quality and relevance of microbial research in Germany.

• DFG Programme: NFDI technical and methodological consortia
• Applicant Institution: ZB MED - Informationszentrum Lebenswissenschaften
• Co-Applicant Institution: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL); Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena; Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI); Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ); Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen; Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH; Philipps-Universität Marburg; Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen; Universität Bielefeld
• Participating Institution: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR); Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, since 8/2024; Forschungszentrum Jülich; Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.; Fraunhofer-Institut für Molekularbiologie und Angewandte Oekologie; Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg; GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main; Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf; Helmholtz Zentrum München; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt; Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ); Hochschule Anhalt, since 3/2023; Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg; Karlsruher Institut für Technologie; Leibniz-Institut für Alternsforschung - Fritz-Lipmann-Institut e.V. (FLI); Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften -ISAS- e.V., since 3/2023; Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB); im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V.; Leibniz-Institut für Naturstoff-Forschung und Infektionsbiologie e. V.; Hans-Knöll-Institut (HKI); Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg; Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin (MDC); Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. (MPG); Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysik; Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik komplexer technischer Systeme; Max-Planck-Institut für Marine Mikrobiologie; Max-Planck-Institut für Pflanzenzüchtungsforschung; Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg; Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn; Robert Koch-Institut (RKI); Ruhr-Universität Bochum; Technische Hochschule Köln; Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB); Technische Universität Darmstadt; Technische Universität München (TUM); Universität Duisburg-Essen; Universität Greifswald; Universität Hamburg; Universität Hohenheim, since 3/2023; Universität Ulm; Universität zu Köln; de.NBI e.V, since 12/2022
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Konrad Förstner
• Co-Spokespersons: Professorin Dr. Anke Becker; Professor Dr. Peer Bork; Professor Dr. Thomas Clavel; Professor Dr. Alexander Goesmann; Professorin Dr. Manja Marz; Professorin Dr. Alice C. McHardy; Dr. Ulisses Nunes da Rocha; Professor Dr. Jörg Overmann; Professor Dr. Alexander Sczyrba; Professor Dr. Jens Stoye