Data Hub

Open Science and thorough data and code management for innovative research and results in accordance with FAIR principles.

One of the core elements for the innovative research work in The Adaptive Mind (TAM) is the infrastructure project "TAM Data Hub". With this data management platform, the research cluster provides its researchers with direct and permanent access to the research data of the entire consortium. The TAM Data Hub enables—in the spirit of Open Science—the early sharing and provision of data and associated code of the different subprojects. In this way, this infrastructure makes it possible to reuse longitudinal and cross-sectional data and, at the same time, to evaluate it using innovative cutting-edge methods, including approaches from machine learning and artificial intelligence, and to gain new knowledge.

The most innovative aspect of this data management platform is its highly generic, and at the same time highly horizontally- and vertically-integrated, approach:

• The TAM Data Hub relies on hardware and software components that are as generic as possible and secured for the long term in order to keep data and code available as comprehensively as possible and for as long as possible. This means, for example, reusing the high-performance storage and computing structures of the participating universities. These will be connected to established services such as GitLab, GIN and JupyterHub, which are accessible to all researchers. Integration into the university infrastructure also makes it possible to work with sensitive data in compliance with data protection regulations. Data and code are specifically adapted to the needs of researchers in TAM through the metadata schema used to describe the data prior to upload. The metadata schema is also chosen to ensure full national and international connectivity.
• The horizontal integration of the Data Hub is ensured by strong discipline-specific local support. This support is provided above all by the TAM Data Stewards funded by the consortium, who provide specialist support in data management and data curation. At the same time, the project is horizontally connected to the local service centers for research data and to the university infrastructures.
• The vertical integration of this project is achieved in an outstanding way through the close connection to the state initiative Hessian Research Data Infrastructures (HeFDI, lead: UMR), to efforts around the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), not least through the participation in the consortium initiative NFDINeuroscience, as well as through participation in the initiative for a data competence center LABDaiTA. Vertical integration continues in particular through participation in the offerings and standards of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF).

This overall project is underpinned on the one hand by a data and code policy adapted to the consortium and on the other hand by a formal governance structure for oversight and monitoring. At the same time, the TAM researchers are supported by training and a specific workshop series to further deepen their competencies in data management and coding.

Behind the Data Hub is a team that includes members of both the UMR Data Center, the local Research Data Service Centers at UMR, JLU and TUDA, and the subject-specific TAM Data Stewards at each site. The close and collaborative interaction between university infrastructure and subject-specific data stewards ensures high-quality and rapid availability of the data management platform.