NFDI4Chem is building an open and FAIR infrastructure for research data management in chemistry. The consortium consists of dedicated data producers and users from university and non-university research, infrastructure institutions and learned societies like the German Chemical Society (GDCh), Bunsen Society and the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG). NFDI4Chem intends to represent all disciplines of chemistry in academia. NFDI4Chem’s vision is to digitize all key steps in chemical research to support scientists in their efforts to collect, store, process, analyse, disclose and re-use research data.
Measures to promote Open Science and Research Data Management (RDM) in agreement with the FAIR data principles are fundamental aims of NFDI4Chem to serve the chemistry community with a holistic concept for access to research data. To this end, the overarching objective is to develop and maintain a national research data infrastructure for the research domain of chemistry in Germany, and to enable innovative and easy to use services and novel scientific approaches based on re-use of research data. In the initial phase, NFDI4Chem focuses on data related to molecules and reactions including data for their experimental and theoretical characterisation.
FAIR Chemistry Data: A Research Data Management Workshop ConceptThis open educational resource (OER) is based on the workshop 'FAIR Research Data Management: Basics for Chemists', which has been delivered over 40 times to more than 800 participants within the NFDI4Chem framework since 2022. NFDI4Chem is the chemistry consortium of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in Germany.
The workshop introduces the fundamentals of research data management (RDM) to researchers working in chemistry and related disciplines, and therefore includes many examples specific to chemistry. We demonstrate how good RDM can be applied in practice, highlighting chemistry-specific features and introducing relevant tools and services. The target group is primarily early career researchers, such as doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers. Our workshop concept is intended for reuse, adaptation and further development by instructors, trainers, and educators from different institutions and (chemistry-related) disciplines.
The workshop concept package includes a modularised slide deck in both NFDI4Chem and plain designs, including comprehensive speaker notes and additional reading material, an introduction file, a detailed training concept file, a file describing the exercises and several example files. Together, these provide conceptual input, RDM knowledge and interactive elements that can be combined, modified or expanded according to specific learning objectives, target groups and the time available.
Based on four modules (M01-M04), the following topics are covered:
M01: Basics of research data management
M02: Documentation
M03: Electronic laboratory notebooks
M04: Data preservation
DMP Writing Made Easy: A Hands-on Workshop for ChemistsThis Open Educational Resource (OER) is part of the Data Management Plan (DMP) workshop, "DMP Writing Made Easy: A Hands-on Workshop for Chemists," which was developed by the Chemistry Consortium of the National Research Data Infrastructure in Germany (NFDI4Chem). The workshop was first offered online on January 21, 2026. The workshop concept was developed as an incubator project of NFDI4Chem during the integration phase of the NFDI basic service on data management plans (DMP4NFDI). This publication directly contributes to the deliverable 2.1, "Concept for outreach support," of the DMP4NFDI integration phase proposal.
The workshop materials intended for reuse by others consist of a set of slides used during the workshop, including comprehensive speaker notes and additional reading material, a detailed concept for conducting the workshop, and a README file.
SmartClue - The NFDI4Chem Guessing GameNFDI4Chem presents its research data management (RDM) guessing game SmartClue, featuring general and chemistry-specific terms. The game encourages researchers to engage with RDM in a fun way. SmartClue is based on our open educational resource (OER) ‘FAIR Chemistry Data: A Research Data Management Workshop Concept’.
What is inside the data publication?
The data publication includes the SmartClue card game template in .pptx and .pdf file format for reuse. Every slide in the .pptx file (or page in the .pdf file) corresponds to a single side of a card. In the files the front and the back of every single card are in an alternating order. The files are provided in the corporate colour scheme (NFDI4Chem petrol, Hex: #009CBC) and font (IBM Plex Sans semibold or light) of NFDI4Chem. The design is given and can be adjusted in the slide master in the .pptx file.
Every playing card includes a number ("M01", "M02", "M03", or "M04") on the back belonging to the four modules of the corresponding OER:
M01: Basics of research data management
M02: Documentation
M03: Electronic laboratory notebooks
M04: Data preservation
SmartClue contains 62 cards in total (cover card, "How to play?" card, and 60 playing cards) provided in landscape format in the size of standard playing cards (91 x 59 mm), thus fitting into a standard playing card holder (66 x 97 x 25 mm). Some shops might ask for a bleed margin when printing the card game, which is not included in the given files.
For more information on the content and reuse of this data publication, have a look at the provided README file.
How to play?
Shuffle the cards and place them face down between the players. The first player draws a card and tries to explain the term on it without mentioning the term or any parts of it. Once the other players have correctly guessed the term, the next player draws a card. To increase the difficulty, skipping cards is not allowed! If several teams are playing against each other, set a time limit of 10 minutes. After this time, the team with the most guessed cards wins.
Have fun!
FAIR Research Data Management: Basics for ChemistsThe two-day interactive workshop "FAIR Research Data Management: Basics for Chemists" was and is offered both as an online workshop and as an in_person workshop. In both formats, the present slides were used. The concept integrates theoretical content with practical hands-on activities and discussions to enable participants to get started with a building block of research data management. In the workshop, participants will learn about different tools to help them get started and also to progress. In addition to general content such as the DFG checklist, the building blocks of research data management will be taught in a chemistry-specific way. Participants will learn the basis for FDM with chemistry-specific content. This publication is a set of slides to be used for the workshop and a schedule for the workshop. This can help trainers to plan a workshop. Also included in the table are the learning objectives, which are broken down according to Bloom's taxonomy.
Overview RepositoryA short introduction to the Repository of Chemotion. Recorded at 2. Stammtisch Chemotion (26/02/21) In order to best serve the needs of the whole chemical community, the “Stammtisch” offers space for suggestions and enhancements all around Chemotion. The “Stammtisch” will be held on the last Friday of each month at 2:00 PM (CET)! Interested? Register for the next Stammtisch: https://nfdi4chem.de/index.php/event/...
Ontologies4Spreadsheets with OntoMatonPart 14 of the 2. Ontologies4Chem Workshop – 11./12.10.23 In this 2. workshop we deepened the discussions around the existing chemical ontologies to address questions around the need of being able to recommend them as canonical resources and around how to improve them. We also discussed tools that can be used in an ontology-based research data management context. Details: https://doi.org/10.25798/dd81-f712
The IUPAC Gold Book: A Compendium of Chemical TerminologyThe IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the "Gold Book") is an aggregation of the formally defined terms in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's Recommendations published in the journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry. The talk highlights the status of the Gold Book and the current major update, machine access to the definitions via an API, and the inclusion of these terms in domain ontologies.
NFDI4C* Workshop on synergy & cooperationA short presentationthat was held in the breakout session "ontologies & metadata" of the NFDI4Chem & NFDI4Cat joint workshop.
InChI for Organometallics and InorganicsIntroduction to InChI for Organometallics and Inorganics. It was recorded at the 7. Chemotion/NFDI4Chem Stammtisch (30/07/21) The “Stammtisch” will be held on the last Friday of each month at 2:00 PM (CET)! Interested? Register for the next Stammtisch: https://nfdi4chem.de/index.php/event/...
eNanoMapper Ontology: Updated curation and development workflowsCHEMINF UpdatesPart 5 of the 2. Ontologies4Chem Workshop – 11./12.10.23 In this 2. workshop we deepened the discussions around the existing chemical ontologies to address questions around the need of being able to recommend them as canonical resources and around how to improve them. We also discussed tools that can be used in an ontology-based research data management context. Details: https://doi.org/10.25798/dd81-f712
Research data management with LinkAheadIntroduction by Timm Fitschen, Indiscale It was recorded at the "Stammtisch" on the Electronic Laboratory Notebook and Repository Chemotion (29/09/23) . In order to best serve the needs of the whole chemical community, the “Stammtisch” offers space for suggestions and enhancements all around Research Data Management in Chemistry. The “Stammtisch” will be held on the last Friday of each month at 2:00 PM (CET)! Interested? Register for the next Stammtisch: https://www.nfdi4chem.de/nfdi4chem-st...