Institut für Strategien und Folgenabschätzung
Existing agricultural research data infrastructures (RDI) are heterogeneous, not yet interconnected and there is a lack of uniform standards for common research data management (RDM). In addition, research data is often stored in inaccessible institutional databases due to the data collectors' lack of FDM knowledge. However, an overarching RDM is an important prerequisite for integrated, cross-disciplinary agricultural research for future agriculture that is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. FAIRagro is a community-driven initiative of NFDI4Agri and focuses on the nucleus of “agrosystem research”. FAIRagro enables researchers to generate and publish data in a FAIR and quality-assured manner, access to relevant research data, innovative and user-friendly FDM services, and modern data science methods. Six use cases were selected to include different user groups in the areas of plant phenotyping, nutrient and crop protection management. The aim is to establish a FAIRagro portal as a central access point to our services and to create a flexible, interoperable and scalable FDI. To this end, we will network available disciplinary repositories to make research data findable and accessible. By providing a data analysis platform with predefined workflows, we enable reproducible, integrated data analysis. We will establish a multi-tiered support system by establishing a coordinated network of data stewards and by providing guidelines and information materials. FAIRagro will address the challenges of quality and legal certainty in the provision and use of sensitive agricultural data. In Use Case 3 we are concerned with improving the findability, accessibility and standardization of data related to integrated pest protection. We are developing an overview of existing data on the occurrence of various harmful organisms and data on yield losses due to biotic stress.
German Research Foundation
