Areas of Responsibility
Our consortium is divided into five task areas (TAs) with different areas of responsibility, which work closely together and coordinate their activities on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, each task area is subdivided into individual measures. What these are and who the contact person is in each case is shown below.
Task Area 1: Use Cases – Implementation
The objective of TA1 is to address challenges of the agrosystem sciences formulated in specific use cases (UCs), on which the concepts and services developed in TAs 2-4 for data, metadata harmonization, standardization, data findability and data access will be based. The outputs of the TA1 actions are an important part for training and education to be aligned with TA2. The UCs in TA1 cover a wide range of agrosystem research questions outlined above considering the scales: genes, plants, crop trial, field, and region.
Task Area Lead: Prof. Dr. Senthold Asseng | ORCID ID 0000-0002-7583-3811 / Coordination: Benjamin Leroy | ORCID ID 0000-0001-6007-7948
Measure 1.1:
UC 1 – Exploiting Genotype x Location x Year x Management Interactions for Sustainable Crop Production, Lead: Jochen C. Reif (IPK)
Measure 1.1 deals with the use of interactions between genotype, location, year and management with regard to sustainable plant production.
Measure 1.2:
UC 2 – Assessing Tradeoffs for Optimal Crop Nitrogen Management, Lead: Heidi Webber (ZALF)
Measure 1.2 deals with the challenges of process-based crop models for optimizing nitrogen use.
Measure 1.3:
UC 3 – Streamlining Pest and Disease Data to Advance Integrated Pest Management, Lead: Till Feike (JKI)
Measure 1.3 addresses the data-specific challenges of managing pests and diseases.
Measure 1.4:
UC 4 – Learning from Incomplete Data, Lead: Gunnar Lischeid (ZALF)
Measure 1.4 deals with the question of how to deal with incomplete data from long-term experiments.
Measure 1.5:
UC 5 – Noninvasive Phenotyping with Autonomous Robots, Lead: Uwe Rascher (FZJ), Co-Lead: Jan-Henrik Haunert (UBN)
Measure 1.5 demonstrates the potential of multimodal data analysis methods and machine learning algorithms for phenotyping plants in the field.
Measure 1.6:
UC 6- Automated Data Flows for Crop Simulation Models, Lead: Senthold Asseng (TUM)
Measure 1.6 deals with data problems in the calibration and application of harvesting models.
Measure 1.7: UC 7- Next-Generation Environmental and EXtended Tools for Extreme Events and Plant Resilience Assesssment, Lead: Dr. Amit Kumar Srivastava, ZALF
Measure 1.7 deals with the challenges of a uniform data set of climate and weather data for climate impact research studies in agriculture.
Measure 1.8:
UC Pilots
Measure 1.8 contains all Use Case Pilots running from 3 to 12 months.
Task Area 2: Community Involvement and Networking
TA2 stands for FAIRagro’s community-driven approach of gathering, engaging, training and educating, and supporting our community. A special characteristic of the agrosystem research community is its distribution over many disciplines, institutions and organizations. Agrosystem research also includes different stakeholders (e.g., consultants, breeders, farmers, policy makers), and is linked to other domains such as plant, environmental, biodiversity and earth sciences. TA2 interacts with the community by bundling ideas, needs, support requests, and feedback and providing training.
Task Area Lead / Coordination: Dr. Ulrike Stahl | ORCID ID 0000-0002-5659-910X
Measure 2.1:
Communication and Dissemination, Lead: Ulrike Stahl (JKI)
Measure 2.1 deals with communication and networking within the agrosystem community. Among other things, the FAIRagro portal is developed and operated here.
Measure 2.2:
Community Participation, Lead: Anne Sennhenn (ATB)
Measure 2.2 deals with the management of feedback by the community and cooperation with the Community Advisory Board (CAB).
Measure 2.3:
Use Case Onboarding, Lead: Anne Sennhenn (ATB)
Measure 2.3 establishes and develops the structured onboarding process for use cases to include new research areas and institutions.
Measure 2.4:
Training and Education, Lead: Birte Lindstädt (ZB MED)
Tailor-made training courses and training materials are developed here in order to further expand the skills of the agrosystems research community in a targeted manner.
Measure 2.5:
Data Steward Service Center (DSSC), Lead: Nikolai Svoboda (ZALF)
The Data Steward Service Center (DSSC) is the competent central point of contact for all questions relating to data management, both for the use cases and for the wider community.
Task Area 3: Standardization, Interoperability and Quality
The aim of TA3 is to facilitate reuse, quality screening and annotation of research data. TA3 will consolidate the FAIR data designs of the involved research infrastructures by guiding stakeholders towards FAIR standards, improving the interoperability of involved vocabularies and ontologies, establishing metadata models and providing publication guidelines for the various types of FAIRagro data to ensure findability and reusability. The consortium will extend schema.org, establish data quality metrics based on an application matrix and develop a legal framework and compile on this basis all outputs of TA3 into actionable policies and legal metadata standards for improved reusability.
Task Area Lead / Coordination: Daniel Martini | ORCID ID 0000-0002-6953-4524
Measure 3.1:
Standardization, Interoperability and Quality, Lead: Daniel Martini (KTBL), Co-Leads: Jan-Henrik Haunert (Uni Bonn) und Claus Weiland (SGN)
To promote awareness and compliance with the FAIR principles within the community, Measure 3.1. creates and develops an inventory of established (meta-)data standards, vocabularies and ontologies.
Measure 3.2:
Standards for Data Management, FAIRness and Discoverability, Lead: Juliane Fluck (ZB MED), Co-Lead: Daniel Martini (KTBL)
Measure 3.2 will create community standards to improve data management practices, FAIRness of data and visibility of data. Specific templates for data management plans (DMP) will be created and extensions to schema.org will be developed.
Measure 3.3:
Measures and Application-Data-Matrix for Data Quality and Fitness-for-Use, Lead: Markus Möller (JKI), Co-Lead: Carsten Hoffmann (ZALF)
Here, standard criteria for data quality in agrosystem research are developed on the basis of representative agrosystem datasets in order to ensure the reusability of data.
Measure 3.4:
Data Quality Annotation, Curation and Feedback / Review, Lead: Jan Henrik Haunert (Uni Bonn), Co-Lead: Uwe Rascher (FZJ)
Building on Measure 3.3, which focuses on the definition of data quality metrics, the toolset is created here (including algorithms, reference data and a review system) that enables the evaluation and improvement of data content based on these quality metrics.
Measure 3.5:
FAIR Workflows and FAIR Digital Objects, Lead: Claus Weiland (SGN), Co-Lead: Daniel Martini (KTBL)
Here, digital FAIR objects (FDO) are developed, services and frameworks for describing research data workflows are provided that enable the creation and use of specific FDOs.
Measure 3.6:
Legal Framework and Machine-Actionable Policies, Lead: Franziska Boehm (FIZ), Co-Lead: Stephan Lesch (SGN)
Measure 3.6 focuses on creating a legally compliant framework for sharing agricultural system data within FAIRagro to improve data accessibility and compliance.
Task Area 4: Infrastructure Services
Based on the agrosystem domain, the demands formulated by the UCs (TA1), and the standards defined in TA3, TA4 implements the necessary components and infrastructure services of the federated RDM along a FAIR enabled research data lifecycle, which will be made accessible via the FAIRagro Portal. The consortium will provide and implement central FAIRagro services, interlink existing data repositories. It will provide a searchable inventory of services and data to improve findability. A framework for reusable data integration workflows to feature use case specific, cloud enabled analysis workflows will be implemented. Furthermore, TA4 is responsible for ensuring the technical compatibility and potential adoption of NFDI’s cross-cutting infrastructure services, as coordinated in NFDI section Common Infrastructures.
Task Area Lead / Coordination: Dr. Matthias Lange | ORCID ID 0000-0002-4316-078X
Measure 4.1:
Central Services for the FAIRagro Community, Xenia Specka (ZALF), Co-Lead: Carsten Scharfenberg (ZALF)
The central services to support the activities of the FAIRagro consortium are provided here. First and foremost: the FAIRagro portal, a project management platform, a customer relationship management system (CRM) and research data management software (RDMO).
Measure 4.2:
Network of Federated Research Data Infrastructures (RDI), Lead: Daniel Arend (IPK), Co-Leads: Stephan Lesch (SGN), Xenia Specka (ZALF)
Measure 4.2 develops a network that connects the various research data sources in agricultural systems science and enables smooth and user-friendly information exchange and data access according to the FAIR principles.
Measure 4.3:
Searchable Inventory of Services and Data, Lead: Juliane Fluck (ZB MED), Co-Lead: Björn Usadel (FZJ)
Measure 4.3 focuses on creating a user-friendly service to query the network of interconnected data infrastructures developed in Measure 4.2 to easily find relevant datasets and infrastructures.
Measure 4.4:
Scientific Workflow Infrastructure (SciWIn), Lead: Harald von Waldow (Thünen), Co-Lead: Patrick König (IPK)
FAIR data management, analysis, and integration often involves multiple services and platforms that are regularly updated and remediated. As a result, data integration and analysis processes can be complicated, inefficient, and difficult to reproduce. Measure 4.4 addresses these challenges by providing a workflow infrastructure called SciWIn that makes it possible to streamline data processing.
Task Area 5: Management and Coordination
TA5 is responsible for the coordination and management of the consortium. TA5 will initiate and coordinate actions to sustain the achievements of FAIRagro. TA5 will organize the day-to-day business of FAIRagro, manage the consortium’s finances, and ensure compliance with funding conditions. TA5 is in charge of organizing periodic reports and FAIRagro plenary events. Actions will be taken to develop FAIRagro in a sustainable, long-lasting institution beyond the NFDI funding phase and to coordinate communication and relations between FAIRagro, NFDI and relevant national and international RDM initiatives.
Task Area Lead: Prof. Dr. Frank A. Ewert | ORCID ID 0000-0002-4392-8154 / Koordination: Dr. Carsten Hoffmann | ORCID ID 0000-0001-6457-4853
Measure 5.1:
Project Management, Governance and Financial Controlling, Lead: Xenia Specka (ZALF), Co-Lead: Carsten Hoffmann (ZALF)
Measure 5.1 ensures the smooth operation of the consortium, supports and controls the activities to support joint governance, manage day-to-day operations, control finances and project progress.
Measure 5.2:
Sustainability and Business Model, Lead: Xenia Specka (ZALF), Co-Lead: Carsten Hoffmann (ZALF)
In order to be able to establish FAIRagro sustainably beyond the funding period, a suitable business model is being developed and implemented in order to maintain the developments of the funding period in the long term.
Measure 5.3:
Cross-NFDI and International Networking, Lead: Carsten Hoffmann (ZALF), Co-Lead: Xenia Specka (ZALF)
Measure 5.3 coordinates communication and collaboration with other NFDI consortia, the NFDI and relevant international RDM initiatives, contributing to a shared vision and facilitating cross-disciplinary FAIR data sharing.