Leibniz Roadmap for Research Infrastructures

About the concept

For light and electron microscope studies of highly infectious pathogens it is essential to bring together infection biology expertise with specialist know-how from the fields of microscopy and data analysis. This is the only way to develop the necessary complex workflows, which also have to meet biological safety requirements. The aim of the Leibniz Centre for the Microscopy of Pathogens (LZ MP) is to professionally operate and continue to develop cutting-edge microscopy techniques in level 3 biosafety laboratories, so that researchers working with human and zoonotic pathogens in risk group 3 can make full use of these methods. There is a pressing need for this kind of infrastructure. Many research projects on highly relevant pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, currently have no access to the latest microscopy techniques. The centre will remove this bottleneck and accelerate imaging-based infection research in Germany. Moreover, it will be able to carry out rapid characterisation of new pathogens with pandemic potential.

In order to offer sufficient capacity and to pool expertise for imaging analyses of viruses, bacteria and parasites, the centre will consist of several decentralised components and one central component. Within the decentralised components, microscopes will be made available with professional support in upgraded biosafety level 3 (BSL3) labs to specialised Leibniz institutes and external partners. The central component will involve the construction of a new building, where novel technology for high-throughput correlative light and electron microscopy on BSL3 pathogens will be developed and operated, including the necessary data analysis infrastructure.

Automated high-throughput operation will enable systematic, large-scale imaging studies of highly infectious pathogens for the first time, providing unprecedented mechanistic insights into infection processes. By establishing this centre, the Leibniz Association will be able to expand its role in infection research, in a nationally and globally visible way, turning it into an innovation leader.

Planned location

Hamburg and decentralised components at partner institutions

Contact persons

Roland Thünauer (LIV), Kay Grünewald (LIV)

Partners from the Leibniz Association

• Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV)
• Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM)
• Research Center Borstel – Leibniz Lung Center (FZB)
• Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (HKI)
• Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT)
• Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP)
• Leibniz ScienceCampus InterACt
• Leibniz ScienceCampus InfectoOptics
• Leibniz Center Infection (LCI)

External partners

• Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB)
• University of Hamburg
• University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

Associated partners

• Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
• German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)
• European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
• Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
• Hannover Medical School (MHH)
• Heidelberg University Hospital

About the concept

The Leibniz Innovation Farm for Sustainable Bioeconomy (InnFarm) will be a unique German research infrastructure for sustainable bioeconomy, consisting of a commercial farm and a research biorefinery with algae cultivation, insect rearing, food processing and treatment, natural fibre processing, the production of biochemicals, and residue management and energy generation in an integrated pilot biogas plant. Besides the central location with the farm and research biorefinery, the Inno-Farm concept includes shared use of existing decentralised infrastructures at participating institutions.

Innovative concepts and technologies are researched, developed further, tested and demonstrated. Areas of application for innovations include diversification, digitalisation and microbiome management. Multidimensional diversification expands both the range of plants and animals used and the diversity of processes and products. Digitalisation enables information-based, highly flexible process management with the latest sensor technology, robotics, data processing and artificial intelligence methods. Understanding and specifically managing the interconnected microbiomes in soils, plants, animals, food, bioconversion plants and residues is key to achieving the goal of closing substance cycles and promoting biodiversity and health.

The InnoFarm is a focal point for mission-driven interand transdisciplinary translational research in an area of high societal relevance and national and international visibility: the realisation of a sustainable, climatefriendly, climate-resilient and biodiversity supporting bioeconomy that pursues the One Health approach within a living lab. This means it will directly promote further connections between Leibniz institutes from a wide range of disciplines, increase the visibility of the Leibniz Association nationally and internationally, and contribute to moving the currently fragmented research in agricultural and food sciences towards a more systems-science approach. The aim is to build an international network of research activities and infrastructures with comparable and complementary concepts.

The InnoFarm is becoming highly visible at regional, national and international level. It supports technology and knowledge transfer to stakeholders, user groups, apprentices and students, and teaches modern, sustainable farming and biomass utilisation to consumers. Industry partners set up projects with their own funds.

Approx. €40 million is already available for the startup phase (2021 – 2026).

Planned location

Groß Kreutz (Brandenburg)

Contact person

Barbara Sturm (ATB)

Webpage

https://leibniz-innohof.de/

Partners from the Leibniz Association

• Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB)
• German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE)
• Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)
• Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB)
• Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ)
• Leibniz Institute for High Performance Micro-electronics (IHP)
• Leibniz Institute for Plasma Research and Technology (INP)
• Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IÖR)
• Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)
• Leibniz-Institut für Verbundwerkstoffe (IVW)
• Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering (IWT)
• Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)
• Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB)
• Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (MfN)
• Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
• Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)

External partners

• Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg
• Freie Universität Berlin
• Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development
• Humboldt University Berlin
• Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin)
• University of Potsdam
• Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN)
• Institute for Food and Environmental Research
• Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
• AgroVet-Strickhof, Switzerland
• Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Belgium
• Harper Adams University, UK
• Natural Resources Institute Finland
• University of Zielona Góra, Poland

About the concept

There are more than 150 million objects in natural and cultural history research collections in Germany and their scientific and social potential has not yet been fully exploited by any means. In view of the speed of global transformation, social changes and scientific and technical development, these collections offer completely new possibilities for research and knowledge transfer. If we can succeed in harnessing their joint potential for research topics and applications in innovative ways, we will be able to help shape social change processes and create new knowledge economies.

The key to this is digital sharing and use through shared technologies, standards and interdisciplinary platforms. To achieve this, the main collection institutions of the Leibniz Association and university partners have formed the Open Science Information- and Research Infrastructure (OSIRIS) consortium to create an open, integrative and participatory research information infrastructure with three objectives: (1) to enable comprehensive digital development and improved scientific characterisation of the collections and associated data, and develop integrative collection strategies, (2) to establish and use new digital technologies as information retrieval tools of the future for interdisciplinary connections between heterogeneous datasets, and (3) to do justice to the huge significance of collections as global knowledge and tech nology repositories and fulfil the consequent social responsibility.

Led by the Leibniz Association, OSIRIS is becoming an interdisciplinary infrastructure of outstanding relevance to society. It adheres to the FAIR and CARE principles and offers the participating institutions a unique national and international depth of cooperation, in consultation with and complementing the German National Research Data Infrastructure. This allows the Leibniz Association to further expand its role as an innovative research and technology partner.

Planned location

The RI is spread geographically across the partner organisations.

Contact persons

Bernhard Misof (LIB), Helmuth Trischler (DM)

Partners from the Leibniz Association

• Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB)
• Deutsches Museum (DM)
• Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science
• Senckenberg Society for Nature Research (SGN)
• Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA)
• Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (DBM) – Leibniz Research Museum for Geo-resources
• German Maritime Museum (DSM) – Leibniz Institute for Maritime History
• Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM) – Leibniz Research Museum for Cultural History
• FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure
• Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)
• Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)
• Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures

Associated external partners

• Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/ Prussian Cultural Heritage
• Bavarian Natural History Collections
• Museum of Natural History Stuttgart
• Botanic Garden and Botanic Museum Berlin

About the concept

Metabolomics is evolving into one of the main drivers of modern life sciences, with foreseeable technical innovation leaps in the near future. Metabolites form the basis of biological interactions, treatments for infectious diseases, and new products such as bioactive substances. Until now, global metabolomics research has largely focused on humans and human diseases. As a complementary approach, institutes in the Leibniz Association have built up technological resources and expertise for the metabolic analysis of bacteria, fungi, plants and animals and their microbiomes, bringing insights into the heterogeneity and complexity of metabolic processes across the full spectrum of organisms within reach. This is something that commercial enterprises will not and cannot do. The fact that individual institutes specialise in different groups of organisms not only allows findings on the causal link between genomic potential and phenotype, but also facilitates an improved understanding of interactions between organisms.

The Translational Competence Platform for Metabolic Diversity (MetaDiv) is initiated by six Leibniz institutes and integrates the expertise of four other Leibniz institutes, two research networks and six external partners. MetaDiv makes it possible to explore the wide variety of unknown compounds and metabolic pathways, and to translate findings regarding their functions for nature protection, medicine, food and agriculture, and biotechnology.

Focus areas of the joint work are:

1. the standardisation of sample preparation and substance libraries and the development of reference laboratories,

2. joint further development of analytical methods,

3. thedevelopmentofnewchemoinformaticsmethods and suitable database repositories for explaining biological interactions in particular, and

4. the development and realisation of training con- cepts and early-career support with the necessary breadth of subjects.

Planned location

The RI is spread geographically across the partner organisations.

Contact person

Jörg Overmann (DSMZ)

Partners from the Leibniz Association

• Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ)
• Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (HKI)
• Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB)
• Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)
• Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS)
• Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)

Associated partners from the Leibniz Association

• Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI)
• Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP)
• Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (MfN)
• Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB)
• Leibniz Research Network on Bioactive Compounds
• Leibniz Research Network on Biodiversity External partners
• BRICS – Braunschweig Centre of Systems Biology/ Technische Universität Braunschweig
• German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
• EU-Openscreen
• Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
• Helmholtz Munich
• National Metrology Institute (PTB)

About the concept

The Scholarly Knowledge Graphs (SciKG) research infrastructure addresses major challenges facing the science system, such as publication overload, the replication crisis and the worsening of the peer review process, and has the potential to help make the science system as a whole considerably more effective, there by helping to solve society’s challenges.

SciKG offers novel approaches for scientific communication, which still takes place largely via unstructured, static documents. The aim of the research infrastructure is to develop and integrate services for the structured, semantic, machine-interpretable linkage of scientific papers from a range of disciplines. This will open up entirely new perspectives for searching and exploring scientific findings and for their overarching integration. The combination of human and machine intelligence to organise scholarly communication using knowledge graphs makes it possible to exploit the potential of AI for excellent research, and offers high innovation potential, particularly in relation to the digitalisation of research.

The novel, semantic structuring of knowledge using knowledge graphs represents a unique feature and enables broad overarching use in all scientific fields. Competing provisions (e.g. Aminer, OpenAlex and Se- mantic Scholar) rarely go beyond the organisation of bibliographic metadata, and then only to a very limited extent. At the same time, SciKG is capable of connecting to a large number of Leibniz, national, European and international initiatives (e.g. specialised information services, German National Research Data Infrastructure, Wikidata, GAIA-X, European Open Science Cloud, Research Data Alliance). This means that SciKG offers high added value for collaborations and net- working and is of great strategic importance for the Leibniz Association as a whole.

SciKG has already reached a sufficient level of maturity: core components (e.g. the Open Research Knowledge Graph) are already available and operating as pro- ductive services. In addition, the project’s good fit with the strategic goals of the participating institutes contributes to its sustainability.

Planned location

The RI is virtual and spread across the partner organisations.

Contact person

Sören Auer (TIB)

Webpage

https://orkg.org/

Partners from the Leibniz Association

• TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology (TIB)
• DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF)
• FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure (FIZ KA)
• Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI)
• GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS)
• Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz Center for Informatics (LZI)
• ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW)

External partners

• German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence • European Open Science Cloud
• Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication
• Systems, Berlin (Fraunhofer Fokus) • Research Data Alliance
• Wikimedia e.V.

About the concept

Modern liberal democracies are based on well-functioning electoral processes that ensure representation of citizens at various levels of the executive and legislative branches. Comparative research on these topics is essential if we are to understand these challenges for democracy and make liberal democracies resilient for the future.

Monitoring Electoral Democracy (MEDem) is a new European research infrastructure that aims to enable comprehensive, highly innovative inter(national) democracy research. The project combines data and information about European democracies and produces standards and instruments for data collection, visualisation and analysis. By collaborating with established European networks of projects and researchers, MEDem improves existing national and international comparative democracy research and lifts the future analysis of parlia- mentary democracies in Europe to a new level of aca- demic excellence and public impact.

MEDem is conceived as a decentralised European research infrastructure.

Its aims are:

1. to coordinate national and comparative internatio- nal projects,

2. to define standards for data collection,

3. to organise pre- and post-harmonisation of data surveys,

4. to make available a user-friendly database of tools, measuring instruments and datasets,

5. to develop new tools for data visualisation and data linkage, and

6. to train and connect the next generation of researchers and experts.

MEDem also promotes Leibniz Association networking in the field of democracy research and public policy consulting, both within Germany and internationally. In order to secure its operation, MEDem is seeking to obtain ESFRI Roadmap status in the next round. Austria has already declared its willingness to host and support the research infrastructure as a host nation. Government ministry representatives from at least ten European countries are currently coordinating political support for MEDem and planning the next steps in its organisation and financing.

Planned location

Vienna, Austria (virtual and distributed RIs)

Contact person

Alexia Katsanidou (GESIS)

Webpage

https://medem.eu/

Partners from the Leibniz Association

• GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS)
• Leibniz Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)
• Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (HSFK)
• WZB Berlin Social Science Center (WZB)

External partners

• University of Vienna, Austria
• FORS – Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences, Switzerland
• University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Sciences Po, France

Associated partners (data collection studies)

• Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES)
• Constituency-Level Election Archive (CLEA)
• Comparative Agendas Project (CAP)
• Comparative Candidates Survey (CCS)
• Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
• ECPR Research Network on Voting Advice Applications (VAA)
• European Election Studies (EES)
• Executive Approval Project (EAP)
• Observatory for Political Texts in European
• Democracies (OPTED)
• ParlGov
• Party Facts
• Political Data Yearbook interactive
• The Manifesto Project (MARPOR)
• The European Election Study
• The Consortium of National Election Studies (CNES) – with more than 20 national election studies

Challenge and relevance

The current state of knowledge regarding changes in biodiversity in Germany is insufficient. A suitable infrastructure which – analogous to infrastructures in climate research – uses modern technology to detect changes in biodiversity and facilitates research into causes and the development of scenarios is currently lacking. As long as the available data is insufficient, it remains difficult to convince stakeholders in agriculture, urban planning and landscape planning using good analyses, and insights from systems ecology cannot be applied to the real landscape. BioM-D is therefore developing an innovative automated multi-sensor station and evaluation procedure in order to mobilise, harmonise and integrate both historic and new observation data within a comprehensive IT system.

What is BioM-D?

BioM-D is a distributed infrastructure comparable to infrastructures used in climate research. It will encompass multi-sensor stations ("weather stations"), measuring stations on ships, centres for evaluating remote sensing data, portals for inputting observation data, and a sophisticated IT infrastructure. BioM-D will have a coordinating centre and several specialised offices responsible for monitoring in waters and on land, and for remote sensing and the incorporation of "citizen science"activities. The participating institutes will combine their existing activities to create the greater entity that is BioM-D, in order to enable analyses of many different species across large areas and periods of time using standardised processes. Users can access data and recommendations for monitoring programmes, utilise analytical tools, permanently store results and compare them with other data, and thus use BioM-D as a work platform for projects.

Access and user groups

Open Access, Shared Access and User Access. The users comprise research institutes focusing on population biology, biogeography, dispersal potential, population genetics, landscape genetics and genomic evolution. BioM-D is also needed for climate research and sustainability research, as well as for research on nature and species conservation, for urban planning and landscape planning, and the analysis of the consequences of land use. With its new quality in technology and data, BioM-D will provide valuable support to experts as well as to national and local authorities. Technologies such as DNA barcoding are also relevant in forensics and to customs authorities. Furthermore, the data are relevant to numerous international reporting duties, treaties and initiatives (including AEWA, CBD, CMS, CITES, EUROBATS, FFH, IPBES and WRRL). All data and software tools are fundamentally available free of charge, and are easily accessible – with the exception of particularly sensitive data (such as the locations where protected species have been sighted). All forms of usage which generate additional costs must be reimbursed. A central internet portal will explain the usage options and direct users to those sites offering specific methods.

Partners

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig — Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity, Bonn (ZFMK)

Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin (BGBM)

Botanische Staatssammlung München (BSM)

Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig (DSMZ)

Senckenberg – German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research, Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg (DZMB)

German Federation for Biological Data, Bremen (GFBio)

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Leipzig (iDIV)

Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin (IGB)

Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock (IOW)

Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin (MfN)

Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig (UfZ)

Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network, Leipzig (GEO BON)

Federal Nature Conservation Agency, Bonn (BfN)

As well as numerous Fraunhofer institutes and universities involved in R&D projects

Time frame

Establishment phase: 10 years

Usage phase: unlimited

Financing

Establishment phase: approx. 418.6 mio. euros; of which approx. 15.35 mio. euros for construction, approx. 99.7 mio. euros for investments, and approx. 294.4 mio. euros for the research and development of new technologies and data structures

Coordination

Prof. Dr. Johann Wolfgang Wägele
Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig – Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity, Bonn (ZFMK)
T +49 228 / 0122 / 200
w.waegele(at)zfmk.de

Challenge and relevance

Germany's public research museums, universities and other collections-based research institutes house more than 150 million scientific specimens collected from around the world. Yet they lack accessibility - which is why their enormous research, educational, and cultural value currently remains largely untapped. A major effort to unlock these resources is urgently required – and DCOLL intends to do it.

What is DCOLL?

DCOLL is designed as a decentralised, nationally coordinated research infrastructure initiative. Its goals are to:

1. Digitise the existing scientific research collections in order to improve their use, nationally and internationally, for scientific, commercial and cultural purposes.
2. Tap into new national and international markets for applied uses of scientific collections, particularly as digital data.
3. Promote new, integrative interdisciplinary research in: biodiversity; bioinformatics, biodiversity informatics and (meta-)omics technologies; environmental and global change; natural resources, bio-economics; human health, nutrition and raw materials; social change and life-long learning.

Access and user groups

DCOLL addresses the needs of three large user groups:

1. The research community,
2. education and public outreach,
3. business and government.

The wide variety of objects in the collections supports an equally broad range of potential users. The main focus however is on international scientific research (75-80 %). Education/public outreach (15-20 %) and commercial users (10 %) are however also target communities.

Partners

Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin (MfN)

Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig (DSMZ)

Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt am Main (SGN)

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig – Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity, Bonn (ZFMK)

Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem (BGBM), Freie Universität Berlin

Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History (SMNS)

Bavarian Natural History Collections (SNSB)

Time frame

Establishment phase: 2019 – 2026

Operational phase: from 2027

Financing

Establishment phase: 372 million euros
Utilisation phase: approx. 12.5 mio. euros a year, financed by the consortium members using their own funds, usage fees, cost reimbursements/expense allowances, third-party projects and service fees

Coordination

Dr. Christoph Häuser
Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin (MfN)
T +49 30 / 2093 - 8479
christoph.haeuser(at)mfn-berlin.de

Challenge and relevance

The digital revolution has changed forever the working processes, methods and databases of the sciences of history. The publications work of the traditionally print-orientated sciences of history is equally as fundamentally affected by this as the development of digital information structures, tools and methods. Academics in this field are also using and shaping the digital world, and contributing to processes such as the digitalisation and retro-digitalisation of old sources, annotations, search strategies and discovery systems.

The fundamental problem faced by all the existing initiatives for digital research infrastructures for the sciences of history is the requirement to develop generic solutions on the one hand and meet the specific needs of individual sub-disciplines on the other. At the same time, the demands are great if the infrastructure is intended not only to manage stand-alone solutions, but also serve as a source of innovation and enable the conducting of innovative, internationally competitive, transparent and relevant research.

What is GeWissDigital?

The Leibniz GeWissDigital expertise network in the sciences of history is designed as a network of five history institutes and two social sciences institutes within the Leibniz Association for the handling of historically relevant research data and digital publications. The partner institutes will professionally and sustainably bundle their research data collections, in order to provide the institutes of the Leibniz Associations as well as the entire historical research community with coordinated access to activities and offerings in the form of projects such as CLARIN-D and DARIAH-DE, whilst taking established best practices into account. GeWissDigital will also develop and evaluate new methods in the field of digital humanities.

It will also represent a point of contact for legal enquiries concerning digital publications. It will provide advice on handling research data and organise appropriate training for junior academics. Following the initial, necessary step of preparing the data and metadata in a manner relevant to the sciences of history, the GeWissDigital will offer a particularly comprehensive data pool for contemporary history with the GESIS and SOEP research data collections.

Access and user groups

As a decentralised expertise network, GeWissDigital is aimed at the historical research community within the Leibniz Institutes and universities, as well as at historically interested educational practice.

Partners

German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin (DIW), Research Data Center (SOEP)

Georg Eckert Institute – Leibniz Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig (GEI)

GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Köln

Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association, Marburg (HI)

Institute of Contemporary History Munich – Berlin (IfZ)

Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz (IEG)

Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam (ZZF)

Time frame

2018-2020: Implementation

From 2020: Continuous operation

Coordination

Prof. Dr. Eckhardt Fuchs
Georg Eckert Institute – Leibniz Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig (GEI)
T +49 531 / 59099 - 500
fuchs(at)gei.de

Challenge and relevance

The humanities, cultural sciences and social sciences provide knowledge of cultural, economic and social developments and thus help us understand and shape the world, and to communicate between different cultures. The collections of Germany's cultural museums and universities are unique representations of human thought, creativity and activity. As part of humankind's cultural heritage, they are preserved in a thematic and decentralised manner; yet they have not been catalogued to the extent required, and both their scope and preservation are under threat. Challenges arise not least in standardising formats, e.g. for (retro-)digitalisation, long-term archiving and long-term safeguarding of access to the research data and contextual information.

What is KultSam?

Using a broad range of methodological expertise, KultSam develops effective tools and innovative information services both to support individual and collaborative cutting-edge research in the cultural sciences and to digitally catalogue, preserve and network collection-related knowledge for a wide range of user groups. The consistently user-focused information services are collaboratively bundled, catalogued and presented in a virtual research environment with a cross-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary orientation. 

KultSam creates a national expertise network of collection-based research for a large number of academic and public user groups. It is intended to function as a national point of contact and an expert partner for internationally active initiatives and research associations in the fields of cultural heritage and digital humanities.

KultSam is designed as a decentralised research infrastructure consisting of four complementary research networks. The centres' areas of expertise range from documentation and digitalisation (Munich); archeometry, conservation and restoration research (Bochum); through to utilising collections in research-based teaching (Göttingen) and including data management and long-term archiving (Karlsruhe).

Access and user groups

Open Access and, in part, User Access. KultSam addresses the needs of three large user groups:

1. Research communities in the narrower and wider sense,
2. university-based teaching,
3. public stakeholders (e.g. monument preservation and interested members of the public specialising in the related fields).

Partners

Deutsches Museum, München (DM)

Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum (DBM)

Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum, Bremerhaven (DSM)

FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (FIZ KA)

Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg (GNM)

Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz (RGZM)

Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin (SPK), with the member institutes: Institute for Museum Research; Rathgen Research Laboratory Berlin; Zedikum Berlin

University of Göttingen

Time frame

2016–2018: Preliminary and planning phase

2019-2028: Establishment phase

From 2029: Operational phase

Financing

Establishment phase: approx. 126 mio. euros, of which around 50 mio. euros will be financed from funds provided by the collaborating partners

Utilisation and phase-out period: 3–4 mio. euros per annum

Third-party funding in the range of 10-15 mio. euros (total)

Coordination

Prof. Dr. Helmuth Trischler
Deutsches Museum, München (DM)
T +49 89 / 2179 - 209
H.Trischler(at)deutsches-museum.de

Challenge and relevance

Omics technologies (high-throughput analysis of whole genomes, genes, transcripts, proteins or metabolites) now play a central and essential role in modern life science research since they enable comprehensive or biologically “global” views into the molecular workings of living organisms. Omics technologies offer great potential for researchers in Germany, but the widespread application of these methods depends on access and capacity of cutting-edge devices equipment and related information technology and infrastructure. To widen this bottleneck for researchers in Germany, existing infrastructures for universities and non-university-based institutes throughout Germany must be made more accessible and better coordinated, and long-term financing strategies for further technological and bioinformatic developments must be established.

What is LiON?

LiON brings together the existing Omics expertise and instrumentation of the participating Leibniz institutes to further develop and significantly expand the available analytical and IT capacities and related databases. LiON will concentrate on the analysis of non-clinical microbial model organisms and communities and on natural and selected populations of important animal and plant species, which complements both current strategic goals for the development of the bioeconomy as well as the specific expertise of institutes of the Leibniz Association in these fields of research. LiOn will focus on establishing and pioneering new technology that would otherwise be too costly and technically sophisticated for individual research labs to accomplish on their own, such as real-time sequencing of individual molecules, single-cell genomics, metagenomics, proteomics, epigenomics and metabolomics. A limited number of high-performance centres of excellence (nodes) will participate in LiON in a distributed infrastructure, where the nodes will develop their technology-specific capacities in a coordinated and complementary manner. Unlike the previous model for major international sequencing centres, the work of the individual nodes within LiON will work in a de-centralised manner on selected organism groups and technologies, enabling an effective bioinformatic and organism-specific data integration. The insights gained through the further technological development of Omics approaches and innovative methods will be immediately relevant to translation (e.g. product optimisation in biotechnology, molecular diagnostics), and thus lay the groundwork for new applications in the bioeconomy. LiON also bridges the necessary expert knowledge in training and teaching practice across the network.

Access and user groups

User Access. LiON offers users from university and non-university-based institutes direct access to current Omics technologies, necessary technical and methodological expertise, bioinformatic analysis, and advanced data management and integration. LiON also offers comprehensive expertise for decision-makers and for purposes of research promotion and distribution.

Within the network, access is provided according to the specific organism group via the node with the respective expertise.

The prioritisation of larger key projects is carried out by a steering committee, with the involvement of an external user council.

Partners

Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig

Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Dummerstorf (FBN)

Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute, Jena (HKI)

Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin (IGB)

Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle (Saale) (IPB)

Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Stadt Seeland (IPK)

Leibniz Institute für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS, Dortmund

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin (IZW) 

Time frame

Preparation phase: May 2017-April 2018

Establishment phase: May 2018-April 2022

Operational phase: From May 2022

Financing

Establishment phase: 33.5 mio. euros; around 30 percent of the costs (10 mio. euros) will be financed from funds provided by the network partners

Operational phase: 3 mio. euros per annum

Third-party funding in the range of 10-12 mio. euros per annum

Coordination

Prof. Dr. Jörg Overmann
Leibniz-Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig
T +49 531 / 2616 - 352
Joerg.Overmann(at)dsmz.de

Challenge and relevance

Infectious diseases are leading to an ever-increasing number of deaths, and threaten the continued development of modern advanced medicine. The fundamental causes for this are the global spread of (multi-)resistant bacteria and fungi, the appearance of hitherto unknown pathogens, and life-threatening infections among immuncompromised patients (in oncology wards, for example). In combination with molecular-biological methods, photonic technologies have in recent years proven to contain enormous potential for permanently solving the urgent problems extant in infection diagnostics.

What is the LPI?

The LPI pursues the aim of combating infectious diseases by means of photonics-based diagnostic tools and therapeutic procedures. Innovative diagnostic technologies and therapeutic approaches are to be created using a comprehensive innovation pipeline — starting with the concept and extending through to the validated procedure — in the form of a completely innovative research infrastructure open to national and international users. The photonic technologies are combined with biomedical technologies from high dimensional biology, next generation sequencing and enabling technologies such as microfluidics in order to use these directly in clinical settings. In the course of the value-generation process, the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches researched and implemented in the form of prototypes are directly subjected to multi-centre clinical validation procedures by means of flying study nurses. This concept is thus far unique, and is an ideal approach to unlocking the potential of photonic technologies for routine clinical processes in an efficient and timely manner.

The LPI technology platform will encompass time and space-resolved spectroscopic imaging technology platforms, innovative multimodal imaging technologies from the XUV to the FIR spectrum ranges, and photonic molecular-biological point-of-care technologies. These will enable the diagnosis and treatment of difficult-to-treat infections, as well as infections in the context of immunosuppression and defined comorbidities.

Access and user groups

User Access.

1. Diagnostics/monitoring technology researchers and developers in the field of academic photonics research and in the commercial sector,
2. medics/biologists and chemists in the fields of infection research and chemical synthesis.

The research groups will either approach the LPI upon their own initiative ("technology push"), or will be identified via LPI technology scouts and motivated to carry out their research activities at the LPI ("technology pull").

Partners

Institute of Photonic Technology, Jena (IPHT)

Jena University Hospital, Jena (UKJ)

Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute, Jena (HKI)

Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU)

Time frame

Preliminary phase: from 2016

Establishment phase: from 2019

Operational phase: from 2024

Financing

Establishment phase: 154.9 mio. euros (according to 2016 plans), of which 67.7 mio. euros is for implementing building and device infrastructure

Operational phase: 9.3 mio. euros (from 2024 per annum)

Central third-party funding: 15 mio. euros across the entire duration. There will also be user fees and project funding acquired by users

Coordination

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Popp
Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Jena (IPHT)
T +49 3641 / 206 300
juergen.popp(at)ipht-jena.de

Challenge and relevance

Short-lived atmospheric components – aerosols, clouds, trace gases – linger in the atmosphere for a period ranging from a few hours to several weeks, differentiating them from long-lived greenhouse gases. This short lifespan leads to highly varied spatial and temporal concentration distributions, and is characterised by rapid processes and interactions between the components. Aerosol particles and short-lived trace gases are some of the key anthropogenic air pollutants influencing the Earth's radiation levels, and cause a large degree of uncertainty in forecasting radiative forcing. They also have a powerful influence on human health, leading to an estimated 400,000 premature deaths within the international community of the EU. Measuring short-lived atmospheric components on a continental and global scale is therefore a prerequisite to understanding relevant atmospheric processes and the efficacy of measures to control air pollution.

What is ACTRIS?

ACTRIS is a distributed, pan-European research infrastructure for quality-assured monitoring of aerosols, clouds and short-lived trace gases, and for researching their complex interactions in the system of atmosphere-climate-environment-humans. Using cutting-edge measuring methods, ACTRIS provides four-dimensional data on the physical and chemical properties of short-lived atmospheric components. ACTRIS also offers access to numerous atmospheric observatories and research laboratories in Europe and around the world. A variety of services, such as free access to data via a central data centre, the calibration of instruments at various European calibration centres, and the education and training of staff, are also part of ACTRIS's remit, as is its work on the innovative further development of measuring techniques and observation methods in close collaboration with industry partners. 

User groups

Open Access and User Access. ACTRIS has a user group spanning all of society, ranging from highly specialised researchers to the general public and encompassing the following groups in particular:

1. Science and teaching, in the field of atmospheric, climate and environmental research,
2. the private sector, in the field of innovation and technology for cutting-edge measuring devices,
3. policy-makers, environment agencies, weather services and flight safety with regard to information and consultation on climate change, air pollution control and atmospheric threats,
4. organisations and service providers (e.g. WMO‐GAW, EMEP, ESA, IPCC, GEOSS, COPERNICUS) with regard to the calibration and validation of instruments and methods, data provision and the further development of European and global monitoring networks.

ACTRIS offers open access to all data via a central data portal, and organises access to its calibration centres, observatories and research laboratories via a central office.

To the ESFRI Roadmap

To the project

Partners

German partners

Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), Leipzig, coordination ACTRIS-D

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven

University of Wuppertal 

Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach

Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH

Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe

Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz

Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg

German Environment Agency, Dessau-Roßlau

University of Bremen

University of Cologne

As well as over 100 additional partners from 20 European countries.

Time frame

Preparation and establishment phase: 2015-2020

Test phase: 2021-2024

Operational phase: from 2025

Financing

Current capital value: approx. 450 mio. euros

Further establishment: approx. 190 mio. euros

Operational phase: approx. 50 mio. euros per annum

Leibniz contact

Prof. Dr. Andreas Macke
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig (TROPOS)
T +49 341 / 2717-7060
macke(at)tropos.de

Challenge and relevance

Plants represent the basis of all our food production and animal feed; they provide vital raw materials for our daily requirements (from clothes to paper, rubber to packaging, furniture to construction materials); they are the source of many different valuable resources (e.g. medications, spices, colourants); and they serve as energy sources. In order to meet the continuously growing demand for plant-based products – which results from the growth of the global population and the increase in energy requirements and use of raw materials – and to achieve their production in a way that is environmentally friendly, with limited resources and under the influences of climate change, it is essential to increase harvest yields, yield stability and product quality. This requires accelerated plant breeding, for which plant phenotyping and new molecular methods represent a key technology. This technology encompasses the automated quantitative recording of plant properties in their interactions with the environment.

What is EMPHASIS?

EMPHASIS is designed to provide a European infrastructure and multidisciplinary expertise for the phenotyping of scientifically and commercially relevant plant populations. These will be cultivated under controlled conditions in greenhouses and climate chambers, under simulated environmental conditions outdoors, and under natural conditions in nursery gardens. EMPHASIS links the only recently established national phenotyping platforms of the founding partners in Germany, France, Belgium and Great Britain (DPPN, FPPN, BePPN, UkPPN) with many different institutions (some of which are still in the founding stage) in other European countries.

Five central infrastructure fields are being developed, with access being created for academic and industrial users: 1. Phenotyping platforms in climate chambers and greenhouses for analyses in high resolution and/or with high throughput; 2. Intensive experimentories for high throughput outdoors; 3. Coordinated networks of field phenotyping infrastructures with a high degree of practical focus; 4. Modelling platform for simulating/testing many different innovative genotype combinations and interactions; and 5. E-infrastructures for structured and standardised data management. In this way, cutting-edge infrastructures for technological developments and their utilisation in biological experiments and cultivation processes will be created and made accessible. Up-to-date information systems for saving, managing, analysing and accessing the generated data will also be created, and a broad range of informational and educational offerings will be provided on the most current phenotyping techniques, on necessary process standards and on efficient data analysis methods.

Access and user groups

The main users are members of academic research institutes and commercial enterprises, who – with the intensive support of the platform operators – generally use their own plant populations to conduct experimental work on scientific and/or cultivation-related issues using the analysis infrastructures provided. They are joined by members of related fields of science and technology, who test and develop new methods embedded in standardised and validated processes.

To the ESFRI Roadmap

To the project

Partners

Direct project partners/founding partners:

Aberystwyth University, Great Britain

Arvalis Institute de Vegetal, Paris, France

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Bangor, Great Britain

Centre Technique Interprofessionnel des Oléagineux Métropolitains, France

Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, Paris, France

Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany

Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Paris, France

Instituut voor Landbouw- en Visserijonderzoek, Merelbeke, Belgium

John Innes Centre, Norwich, Great Britain

Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany

North Wyke Farm Platform, Harpenden, Great Britain

Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Great Britain

Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Université de Liège, Belgium

University of Edinburgh, Great Britain

University of Nottingham, Great Britain

Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie, Gent, Belgium

Time frame

Preparation and establishment phase: 2016/2020

Operational phase: 2017 (first access, full capacity from 2020) until at least 2025 

Financing

(By the direct project partners/founding partners, see above)

Establishment phase: approx. 186 mio. euros (institutional funds and project funding)  

Contact

Prof. Dr. Thomas Altmann
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben (IPK)
T +49 39482 / 5214
altmann(at)ipk-gatersleben.de

Challenge and relevance

With the national solar telescopes currently at its disposal, European solar physics plays a pioneering role. However, further exploration of the fundamental processes of the sun and its intrinsic spatial and temporal scales requires a considerably higher resolution than can be provided by the existing telescopes. This resolution can be achieved with a telescope of the four-metre class. Thanks to advanced adaptive optics, a large telescope can today actually reach its theoretical spatial resolution; the larger opening also gathers more light to temporally resolve rapid processes occurring on small spatial scales.

What is EST?

The EST is a four-metre solar telescope, optimised for studying the magnetic field of the sun from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. By measuring radiation intensity, spectra and polarisation in visible and infrared wavelengths, the thermal, dynamic and magnetic properties of the plasma can be determined across many scale heights. The EST is therefore designed for observation in high spatial and temporal resolution and for the simultaneous use of a broad range of instruments which can efficiently record two-dimensional spectral information.

The EST is to be installed on Tenerife or La Palma at a height of 2,400 metres. The Canary Islands offer the best observation conditions in Europe, comparable to the best sites world-wide. Operation of the EST is to be controlled and supported from a Telescope Operation and Science Center (TOSC) at sea level. The observation data will be immediately processed there, and then stored in databases. As a third component, a Science Data Center (SDC) is to be established in Germany, which will make the data accessible to scientists and optimise the scientific use of the data.

Access and user groups

Shared Access. Implementing the EST is the most important objective of the EAST (European Association for Solar Telescopes) consortium, which brings together all stakeholders in European solar physics. The observation time is to be shared fairly between the EAST partners and other interested parties. Firstly, all partners are to be provided with access to the EST to a degree commensurate with the respective country's contribution. Secondly, a substantial proportion of the observation time is to be given away in a competitive application procedure. Following a certain embargo period, all observation data are to be made accessible to all (multiple use of the data).

To the ESFRI Roadmap

To the project

Partners

Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics, Potsdam, Germany

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany

INSU-CNRS, THEMIS S.L., France

Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Rome, Italy

Università Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

Università di Catania, Catania, Italy

Università della Callabria, Rende, Italy

University College London – MSSL, Great Britain

Queen’s University Belfast, Great Britain

University of Sheffield, Great Britain

Hvar Observatory, Croatia

Sterrekundig Instituut Utrecht, Netherlands

Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Norway

Institute of Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorology, University of Graz, Austria

Astronomical Institute of the Wroclaw University, Poland

Institute for Solar Physics, Stockholm, Sweden

Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno, Switzerland

Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia

Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Granada, Spain

Astronomical Institute AS CR, Ondřejov, Czech Republic

Heliophysical Observatory Debrecen, Hungary

Time frame

Design: 2008-2019

Construction: 2020-2026

Operation: 25-30 years

Financing

Design: approx. 20 mio. euros

Construction: approx. 160 mio. euros

Operation: approx. 9 mio. euros per annum

Contact

Prof. Dr. Oskar von der Lühe
Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics, Freiburg (KIS)
vorstand(at)leibniz-kis.de