4th NFDI4Microbiota Newsletter - PDF version in the attachment Dear Reader, With our fourth NFDI4Microbiota newsletter, we would like to share news about conferences and events, the new StrainInfo-Archive and available online videos. If you are interested in other topics we should cover, please let us know. We are happy to <https://nfdi4microbiota.de/contact-form/> hear from you<https://nfdi4microbiota.de/contact-form/>! And now: Enjoy reading the newsletter! Community engagement – events and conferences The second NFDI4Microbiota annual conference was held in April under the theme “Community Engagement” We were glad to meet some of our participants and ambassadors during the second NFDI4Microbiota annual conference in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Our participants had the opportunity to introduce themselves by giving flash talks and presenting posters and to get insights into the aims and current achievement of our consortium. [cid:ed7b0cab-6e0f-43cc-84ac-0f457fa36069] In addition, we were able to invite two international keynote speakers who reported on their infrastructure projects. First, <https://www.wur.nl/de/Personen/Hauke-prof.dr.-H-Hauke-Smidt.htm> Prof. Dr. Hauke Smidt<https://www.wur.nl/de/Personen/Hauke-prof.dr.-H-Hauke-Smidt.htm><https://www.wur.nl/de/Personen/Hauke-prof.dr.-H-Hauke-Smidt.htm> from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, presented the work and opportunities that the <https://www.wur.nl/en/article/unlock-1.htm> UNLOCK<https://www.wur.nl/en/article/unlock-1.htm><https://www.wur.nl/en/article/unlock-1.htm> project offers to microbiology scientists. The UNLOCK infrastructure is open for exploring new horizons for research on microbial communities. The free service provides the ability to study microbial communities in a variety of environments. Our second keynote speaker, Lee Ann McCue, came all the way from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the US. She is a member of the <https://microbiomedata.org/> National Microbiome Data Collective (NMDC)<https://microbiomedata.org/><https://microbiomedata.org/>;. After presenting the work of NMDC, a fruitful discussion and exchange took place with our consortium. Collaboration on similar topics is planned throughout the project. [cid:6b6eed56-4d28-48f0-8b1a-182685738ce2] NFDI4Microbiota will present its work during the Thuringian RDM Days The <https://forschungsdaten-thueringen.de/rdm-days/articles/rdm-days.html> Thuringian RDM Days<https://forschungsdaten-thueringen.de/event/fdm-tage-2023-en.html> are an annual series of events during which the universities in Thuringia offer various lectures and workshops on research data management under a specific motto. These are primarily targeted at researchers in Thuringia, but are also open to researchers and other interested parties! We will present the work of NFDI4Microbiota online on June 21 at the Thuringian RDM Days 2023. ICTV/EVBC Workshop on Automating Virus Taxonomy From July 31 to August 2, 2023, the EVBC (European Virus Bioinformatics Center) and the ICTV (International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses) are organizing a workshop on “Automating Virus Taxonomy” in Jena, Germany. Prof. Manja Marz, NFDI4Microbiota partner, is part of the organising committee. The workshop will be hybrid and can therefore be attended live or online. On the first day, Prof. Alexander E. Gorbalenya (Leiden University, the Netherlands) and several other virology experts will present on virus taxonomy and the ins and outs of classifying specific viruses. In the morning of the second day, bioinformaticians will explain how they have implemented automated classification methods. In the afternoon, both groups, virology experts and bioinformaticians, will be brought together for discussion sessions with the goal to start or deepen collaborations between participants. In addition to this program, satellite hands-on sessions (August 2, 2023) will be offered focusing on automating bioinformatics workflows (Snakemake) and virus databases (organized by NFDI4Microbiota). For more information and to register click <https://evbc.uni-jena.de/events/virus-taxonomy-workshop/> here<https://evbc.uni-jena.de/events/virus-taxonomy-workshop/>. Second in-person meeting of the NFDI management circle took place in Hamburg A strong network needs good coordination. For this reason, people from the different NFDI consortia met for a second in-person meeting to discuss different management topics at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg. The meeting addressed common challenges and approaches to solutions with a focus on administrative issues. The two days in Hamburg also offered plenty of opportunities for networking and personal exchange. We are glad to be able to work in such a supportive and friendly community. [cid:a2f411ac-e731-4c06-adb2-e9bf3fa0140b] NFDI4Microbiota Services Alpha version of the StrainInfo-Archive is online In microbiology, resolving microbial strain identifiers is an important requirement. Strain identifiers represent a universal language for working with strains and can be found throughout literature, databases and culture collection catalogs. StrainInfo is a service being developed to provide a one-stop shop for strain identity information by storing culture collection numbers, their relations and associated information on taxonomy, sequence accessions and literature to help researchers in their work with microbial strains. StrainInfo was initially created by BCCM/LMG between the years 2005 and 2015 and is currently being developed by the NFDI4Microbiota partner institution DSMZ. The alpha version<https://straininfo.dsmz.de/#><https://straininfo.dsmz.de/#><https://straininfo.dsmz.de/> of StrainInfo is now online and utilizes test data provided by LMG. Media Interview on the importance of research data management in microbiology is online Is scientific work even possible today without dedicated research data management? And what role do infrastructures play in this? Elke Roesner talks about this in the new “ZB MED Nachgefragt” with Barbara Götz, microbiologist and project manager at NFDI4Microbiota, and Prof. Dr. Konrad Förstner, bioinformatician and speaker of our consortium. This <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwmMuPh0LBw> video podcast<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwmMuPh0LBw> (German) explains where NFDI4Microbiota stands today, the challenges to be overcome, future plans and why it is necessary to reach scientists even earlier in their careers to embed awareness of research data management in the scientific communities. [cid:89929157-3a76-48c1-990b-ca45593e0aa6] NFDI4Microbiota contributed to Love Data Week 2023 with a panel discussion on the benefits of data-driven decisions in life sciences – video is now online What needs to happen to establish conscientious research data management in the disciplines of the life sciences? How can researchers be convinced and reservations be overcome? These were the questions addressed in a highly interesting panel discussion on February 16, 2023, jointly organised by the NFDI consortia NFDI4Biodiversity, DataPLANT, NFDI4Health and NFDI4Microbiota. Panelists were Dr. Barbara Ebert (NFDI4Biodiversity), Prof. Dr. Konrad Förstner (NFDI4Microbiota), Prof. Dr. Björn Usadel (DataPLANT) and Prof. Dr. Iris Pigeot (NFDI4Health). The discussion was moderated by Dr. Kerstin Elbing (Verband Biologie, Biowissenschaften und Biomedizin in Deutschland e. V. – VBIO). The discussion was introduced by keynote speeches from Dr. Martin Friedrichs-Manthey (NFDI4Biodiversity), Prof. Dr Björn Usadel and Prof. Dr Iris Pigeot. The event was part of the Love Data Week 2023, an international week of action to discuss and reflect on research data together. Under the motto "Data: Agent of Change" the Love Data Week 2023 was celebrated worldwide from February 13-17 with numerous events on a wide range of research data management (RDM) topics. The <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k64WHbwy8I> video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k64WHbwy8I> of the panel discussion is now online! Short clip: The work of a data steward A Data Steward is, generally said, a person who is responsible for ensuring the quality of data assets, including metadata. However, the tasks of data stewards are very different and fulfill different requirements. This is also the case in the field of research. Good research data management is essential in research. Data stewards play a crucial role here, as they support researchers in this task and take on the role of intermediaries between the different fields of work. Justine Vandendorpe, one of NFDI4Microbiota’s data stewards at <https://www.zbmed.de/kontakt/justine-vandendorpe> ZB MED<https://www.zbmed.de/kontakt/justine-vandendorpe>, explains what her tasks as a data steward look like: “As a data steward within NFDI4Microbiota, I support the curation of microbial omics data and associated metadata. In practice, this means that I train researchers in research data management and reproducible data and software practices. I also advise researchers on the use of electronic lab notebooks and in writing their data management plan.” Learn more about her work in this <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcoNsvfwvts> video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcoNsvfwvts>;. [cid:9eed2032-837e-4e0b-b92d-88dd91632b20] NFDI4Microbiota is now part of the Mastodon network As a decentralised network, Mastodon represents an alternative to well-known social media platforms such as Twitter. Since mid of May, we have a <https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota> new Mastodon profile<https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota> on the NFDI instance<https://nfdi.social/home>. The instance is designed to be a place where users can share ideas about research data management (RDM) and discuss exciting topics from the NFDI consortia as well as the scientific community. You can also follow us from another server if you look for: @NFDI4Microbiota@nfdi.social Open access research data management training material publication A group of research data management (RDM) experts at our partner institution ZB MED just published an open access RDM training workshop material in Publisso<https://repository.publisso.de/resource/frl:6452660>. The ‚Online Training Workshop on Research Data Management in (Bio-)Medicine‘ is build of three main chapters: 1) General aspects of RDM, 2) Discipline-specific content, and 3) Engagement methods. This material is not only for self-study purpose, but explicitly for training purposes. It is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Social links and Contact Follow us on Twitter<https://twitter.com/nfdi4microbiota?lang=en>;, <https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota> <https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota> Mastodon<https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota><https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota><https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota><https://nfdi.social/@NFDI4Microbiota> and <https://github.com/NFDI4Microbiota> GitHub<https://github.com/NFDI4Microbiota>;! 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