PID4NFDI is a basic service for persistent identifiers in development for the German National Research Data Infrastructure (Nationale Forschungsdaten­infrastruktur – NFDI). PID4NFDI is part of Base4NFDI and is currently in its integration phase, the second of three service development phases.

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) are central to FAIR research data management. However, different disciplines and different resources result in diverse requirements and the different NFDI consortia have different levels of maturity in PID implementation. PID4NFDI will design a work programme to build an NFDI foundation service on established PID infrastructures.

As there already is a mature and globally used PID provider landscape and PID needs are highly individual in the consortia, we define our intended service as a set of several components (technical, organisational, standards, training, outreach) that are in their interaction tailored to the needs of NFDI stakeholders.

Stakeholders Within NFDI

Within NFDI, the primary stakeholders for PID4NFDI are the 26 domain-specific NFDI consortia, with all their different members of various roles, backgrounds and from various types of organizations. Important individuals from the consortia are the ones working with PID implementation, either technically or on infrastructure or governance level, e.g. repository managers or information officers. The current five NFDI sections, including their working groups, address cross-cutting topics relevant to multiple or all consortia. PID4NFDI was initiated out of the section Common Infrastructures. PID4NFDI is part of Base4NFDI, which is an important stakeholder – as are the other basic services currently in development.

Stakeholders Beyond NFDI

Beyond NFDI, PID service providers are crucial stakeholders because they manage and maintain the infrastructure for assigning and resolving PIDs, establish standards and best practices for PID usage, thereby contributing to interoperability and consistency across different systems. Important for PID4NFDI are the services of the two project partners DataCite and GWDG (with ePIC, the European Persistent Identifier Consortium), as well as further service providers such as the ARK Alliance, Crossref, ORCID, and ROR (Research Organization Registry), among others. The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is important to recognize as a stakeholder itself and as an environment of and for stakeholders. This is especially relevant as NFDI is part of EOSC’s build-up phase and in light of EOSC’s PID policy.

For a more extensive overview of the stakeholders and other projects and initiatives relevant for PID4NFDI, refer to our communication strategy.

Collaboration with PID Network Germany

PID4NFDI closely collaborates with the project PID Network Germany, which aims to establish a network in science and culture that promotes and consolidates the application, implementation, standardization and international connectivity of PID systems on a national and international level. Both projects have an overlap in partners (DataCite, Helmholtz Open Science Office and TIB – German National Library of Science and Technology) and are hence aligned through bilateral coordination and a well-established exchange of information, which is important due to the different scopes of the projects: PID4NFDI focuses on PID implementation in the context of NFDI and especially within NFDI consortia with analyses of specific use cases. PID Network Germany addresses the wider scientific and cultural sector, covering a more extensive range of PID application areas beyond research data (management) and with a focus on a wide variety of use cases and stakeholders. PID4NFDI can use and integrate results and findings from PID Network Germany, and vice versa: For example, PID4NFDI will adapt the national PID roadmap to be released by PID Network Germany in developing PID guidelines for NFDI, while in turn PID4NFDI contributes PID-related NFDI activities and perspectives to PID Network Germany.