The NFDI4Earth project (1) is one of ten consortia of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) (2) that will receive continued funding starting in October 2026. The federal and state governments will provide funding for this purpose through the end of 2028, initially (3). But the funding is set to continue even beyond that: the Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz (GWK) has decided that the federal and state governments will continue to fund the NFDI from 2029 to 2038 (4). 

Thanks to this continued funding, NFDI4Earth can strengthen its role as a central point of contact for researchers in the field of research data management, further develop services and advisory offerings, and support the data-driven use and maturation of artificial intelligence.

NFDI4Earth advocates for open and FAIR research data and has drafted the NFDI4Earth FAIRness and Openness Commitment (5) to this end. The Department of Earth Sciences was one of the first organisations and groups to sign the commitment in 2024 and has been implementing various measures in this regard ever since. By the way: individuals can also sign the commitment. We encourage you to get involved!

All researchers in the Earth Sciences can contribute their ideas and energy to NFDI4Earth (e.g., as a member of the NFDI4Earth Helpdesk (6), in interest groups (7), as an author of a “Living Handbook” article (8)), or may participate in the annual plenary meetings (9). 

In the upcoming funding phase, the FU University Library will receive funding from the NFDI4Earth project and will participate in the area of “Community commitment to cooperative FAIR and open research data management.” The contact person is Andreas Hübner (10).

(1) https://nfdi4earth.de/

(2) https://www.nfdi.de/

(3) https://www.nfdi.de/erfolg-fuer-nfdi-gwk-beschliesst-weitere-foerderung-aller-konsortien-der-zweiten-runde/

(4) https://www.nfdi.de/gwk-beschliesst-weitere-foerderung-von-nfdi-ab-2029-durch-bund-und-laender/

(5) https://nfdi4earth.de/2coordinate/cultural-change/nfdi4earth-commitment

(6) https://onestop4all.nfdi4earth.de/howtoentry/lhb-docs-Become_A_Helpdesk_Expert.md

(7) https://onestop4all.nfdi4earth.de/howtoentry/lhb-docs-Participate_IG.md

(8) https://onestop4all.nfdi4earth.de/howtoentry/lhb-docs-LHB_author-guidelines_ENG.md

(9) https://nfdi4earth.de/?view=article&id=447:nfdi4earth-plenary-2026-recap&catid=12

(10) https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/zb/ueber-uns/team/huebner/index.html