The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is a global organization focused on developing the social and technical conditions for open sharing and re-use of data and for fostering data-driven innovation. In 2013, RDAs were jointly launched by the European Commission (EC), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the US Government's National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Australian Government's Ministry of Innovation.
In August 2019, the RDA had 8,810 individual members from 137 countries and 58 institutional members. RDA members gather and act through working and interest groups, of which there are currently 86, whose work generally results in RDA recommendations and results that respond to the challenges posed by research data. Individual membership of the RDA as well as participation in working and interest groups is free of charge.
The European Branch of the RDA (RDA Europe) seeks to inform and actively engage European political and research circles and engage industry and digital infrastructures in global RDA activities. The RDA Europe 4.0 project is funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Framework Program. The RDA Europe 4.0 project seeks to play a central role in the EU's open science strategy by relying on a network of national RDA nodes. By 31st of May 2020, 22 national hubs will be established in Europe by the end of the RDA Europe 4.0 project.
Thanks to many years of work to promote and build an open science infrastructure, RDA Europe 4.0 has accepted SRCE's application for a national RDA node and has signed a contract with a project partner - University of Gottingen (UGOE) on September 10, 2019. SRCE's application was supported by a range of institutions, infrastructures and centers of excellence: MoH, NSK, IRB, DHMZ, DARIAH-HR, FFOS, FFZG, MEFST, ZCI for data science and cooperative systems and ZCI for personalized health care.
The tasks of the national RDA node are:
- support research data at national level by promoting the RDA vision and adopting RDA recommendations and results
- act as liaison between national researchers, the global RDA community, and national science funding bodies
- contribute to defining European policies related to research data
- contribute to defining the RDA strategy and participating in RDA processes.
