International Collaboration on Research Data Infrastructure (iCORDI)

About

Over the last decade, significant investments have been made in both Europe and the US for developing scientific data infrastructures to support the work of research communities and improving shared access to data. On both sides of the Atlantic, there is a shared understanding that solutions must be global and that the development of an integrated and interoperable data domain can only be achieved through increased global cooperation.

iCORDI aims to be the premium global forum driving convergence between emerging global data infrastructures with a particular focus on Europe and the US. Its prime objective is to serve as an EU-US coordination platform chartered with improving the interoperability of today’s and tomorrow’s scientific data infrastructures on both continents.

This platform will:

– Foster discussion between relevant stakeholders in the EU and US on concrete topics related to interoperability of the data infrastructures and solutions based on a top-down approach.
– Overcome identified challenges and turn ideas on convergence into concrete specifications that can be immediately implemented in both continents by bringing data practitioners together in a bottom-up process.
– Demonstrate what can realistically work and pinpoint remaining barriers that have to be tackled to achieve full interoperability.

Its strategic vision is to make an important contribution to the development of policy in both Europe and the US for the management and curation of scientific data, leading to a common policy that drives the development of a wider global infrastructure.

To achieve this vision, iCordi will be driven by a High Level Scientific Forum comprising experts on policy for the management and curation of data from Europe and the US, collectively making strategic recommendations fostering the convergence of data integration, interoperability and infrastructures.

Three key pillars underpin the iCordi combined top-down/bottom-up approach:

– An analysis programme: assessing data organisation techniques and solutions emerging from various scientific communities that can motivate common approaches.
– A prototype programme: coordinating activities between important EU and US projects and communities by supporting cross-infrastructure experiments on EU-US interoperability.
– A workshop programme: investigating the convergence of data infrastructure with particular focus on a broad set of scientific disciplines.