Concept for Setting up an LTA Working Group in the NFDI Section "Common Infrastructures"
Creators: name: Bach, Felix
name: Degkwitz, Andreas
name: Horstmann, Wolfram
name: Leinen, Peter
name: Puchta, Michael
name: Stäcker, Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: NFDI
LTA
Long Term Archiving and Access
Base4NFDI

description: NFDI consortia have a variety of disparate and distributed information infrastructures, many of which are as yet<br> only loosely or poorly connected. A major goal is to create a Research Data Commons (RDC) . The RDC concept1<br> includes, for example, shared cloud services, an application layer with access to high-performance computing<br> (HPC), collaborative workspaces, terminology services, and a common authentication and authorization<br> infrastructure (AAI). The necessary interoperability of services requires, in particular, agreement on protocols<br> and standards, the specification of workflows and interfaces, and the definition of long-term sustainable<br> responsibilities for overarching services and deliverables. Infrastructure components are often well-tested in<br> NFDI on a domain-specific basis, but are quite heterogeneous and diverse between domains.<br> LTA for digital resources has been a recurring problem for well over 30 years and has not been conclusively<br> solved to date, getting urgency with the exponential growth of research data, whether it involves demands from<br> funders - the DFG requires 10 years of retention - or digital artifacts that must be preserved indefinitely as digital<br> cultural heritage. Against this background, the integration of the LTA into the RDC of the NFDI is an urgent<br> desideratum in order to be able to guarantee the permanent usability of research data. A distinction must be2<br> made between the archiving of the digital objects as bitstreams (this can be numeric or textual data or complex<br> objects such as models), which represents a first step towards long-term usability, and the archiving of the<br> semantic and software-technical context of the digital original objects, which entails far more effort. Beyond the<br> technical embedding of the LTA in the system environment of a multi-cloud-based infrastructure, a number of<br> technically differentiated requirements of the NFDI's subject consortia are part of the development of a basic<br> service for the LTA and for the re-use of research data.3<br> The need for funding for the development of a basic LTA service for the NFDI consortia results primarily from the<br> additional costs associated with the technical and organizational development of a cross-NFDI, decentralized<br> network structure for LTA and the sustainable subsequent use of research data. It is imperative that the technical<br> actors are able to act within the network as a technology-oriented community, and that they can provide their<br> own services as part of the support for also within a federated infrastructure. The working group "Long Term<br> Archiving" (LTA) is to develop the requirements of the technical consortia for LTA and, on this basis, strategic<br> approaches for the implementation of a basic service LTA.<br> The working group consists of members of various NFDI consortia covering the humanities, natural science and<br> engineering disciplines and experts from a variety of pertinent infrastructures with strong overall connections to<br> the nestor long-term archiving competence network. The close linkage of NFDI consortia with experienced4<br> partners in the field of LTA ensures that a) the relevant technical state-of-the-art is present in the group and b)<br> the knowledge of data producers about contexts of origin and data users interact directly. This composition<br> enables the team to take an overarching view that spans the requirements of the disciplines and consortia, also<br> takes into account interdisciplinary needs, and at the same time brings in the existing know-how in the<br> infrastructure sector.