What’s in store for the next 5 years? Our work program for 2026-2031 is published

NFDI4Microbiota has started its second funding phase, which will run from October 2026 until the end of 2028. Building on the achievements and structures established during the first funding phase, the consortium will continue its collaboration between ten existing partner institutions while expanding its network of participating institutions.

During this second phase, NFDI4Microbiota will further develop and consolidate its services, structures and expertise in research data management. The work program addresses emerging developments in the life sciences and research data management, with the aim of supporting the microbiology community in strengthening digital literacy, structuring research knowledge, and improving data reproducibility and sharing.

Several areas will receive particular attention, including:

• Electronic laboratory notebooks:
  Further development of features to support digital documentation of research activities.
• Structured experimental protocols and media recipes:
  Improving the documentation, accessibility and citability of experimental methods and media recipes.
• Data and repository connections:
  Strengthening links between data producers and data repositories to facilitate data sharing and reuse.
• Knowledge structuring and data interoperability:
  Further developing approaches and services that support the structured representation and exchange of research knowledge.

The aims are to reduce the effort required for research data management and allow researchers to focus more on their scientific work, while still creating findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable research data.

NFDI4Microbiota appreciates the continued support and trust placed in the consortium. Together with our community and partners, we will continue advancing FAIR and Open microbiology data and providing sustainable research data management services and expertise.

Read the full work program of the second funding phase here: NFDI4Microbiota renewal proposal (DOI: 10.3897/rio.12.e215133)

The five key objectives of NFDI4Microbiota’s second funding phase are to (I) raise awareness and foster a culture of responsible research data management; (II) strengthen skills and data literacy; (III) provide research insights through structured knowledge; (IV) expand the tools and services that enable reproducible research; and (V) contribute to consolidating the German and European research data infrastructure landscape.