[CODATA-international] DDI Alliance and CODATA Establish Partnership for Collaboration

Fri Dec 11 07:49:59 EST 2020

CODATA <https://codata.org/>, the Committee on Data of the International
Science Council <https://council.science/>, and the Data Documentation
Initiative (DDI) Alliance <https://ddialliance.org/> have established a
partnership for ongoing collaboration.  In a recent letter of intent, the
organisations outlined in the areas of shared interest and arrangements for
mutual membership.

Furthermore, to strengthen cooperation, Steve McEachern, Chair of the
Executive Board, will be the DDI Alliance delegate to CODATA, while Simon
Hodson, Executive Director of CODATA
<https://codata.org/about-codata/secretariat/>, is a candidate for the
Scientific Board of the DDI Alliance
<https://ddialliance.org/announcement/ddi-scientific-board-candidates-election>
.https://codata.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/DDI-tagline1-1.jpg

Two developments make this collaboration opportune and appropriate.  On the
one hand, CODATA has been mandated by the International Science Council, as
part of the latter’s Action Plan 2019-2021
<https://council.science/making-data-work-for-grand-challenges/>, to
develop and implement a global, decadal programme entitled ‘Making Data
Work for Cross-Domain Grand Challenges’
<https://codata.org/initiatives/strategic-programme/decadal-programme/>.
The objectives of the programme are multiple, but first among these is to
assist cross-domain research and policy monitoring by facilitating the
interoperability, combination and integration of data from many different
sources. The mechanisms being explored to assist this are also multiple and
include: developing conceptual and semantic alignment between key
metadata specifications,
developing semantic tools to assist interoperability, developing
methodologies and processes to assist harmonisation and data ‘cleaning’,
and exploring the contribution that machine learning can make to some of
these processes.

On the other hand, DDI – Cross Domain Integration (DDI-CDI)
<https://ddi-alliance.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DDI4/pages/860815393/DDI+Cross+Domain+Integration+DDI-CDI+Review>
is
a potentially significant development which includes definitions for core
concepts, applicable across a range of research areas, and which will
therefore greatly increase interoperability between data sets.  Taken
alongside developments such as DCAT, Schema.org, initiatives to standardise
representation of experiments, observations and measurements, and the
improved management of ontologies, DDI-CDI can make a positive contribution
across domains and the collaboration between the DDI Alliance and CODATA is
very timely.

In the recent past, the DDI Alliance and CODATA have engaged in a number of
activities together:

   - Jointly organized two “cross-domain” workshops on metadata standards,
   hosted at Schloss Dagstuhl in Wadern, Germany (2018
   <https://ddi-alliance.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DDI4/pages/433553433/2018+Interoperability+of+Metadata+Standards+in+Cross-Domain+Science+Health+and+Social+Science+Applications>
   , 2019
   <https://ddi-alliance.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DDI4/pages/684195863/2019+Workshop+on+Interoperability+of+Metadata+Standards+in+Cross-Domain+Science+Health+and+Social+Science+Applications+II>
   ).
   - CODATA has supported the DDI-CDI public review, helping to promote and
   conduct a series of webinars since May 2020
   <https://codata.org/initiatives/strategic-programme/decadal-programme/ddi-cross-domain-integration-review-webinar-series/>
with
   an attendance of over 400 people across a wide range of domains. (Given the
   need for input to the specification from other domains, CODATA’s
   connections were invaluable in identifying the right group of participants.)
   - CODATA is leading an EOSC project to produce a report on the
   application of DDI-CDI within the EOSC environment
   <https://codata.org/initiatives/strategic-programme/decadal-programme/ddi-cross-domain-integration-review-webinar-series/applying-ddi-cdi-to-the-eosc/>,
   working with members of the DDI Modelling, testing and Representation (MRT)
   working group.
   - Engaged in supporting projects which are implementing DDI, as part of
   the Decadal Programme (“Making Data Work for Cross-Domain Grand
   Challenges”). Notably, the INSPIRE Network development in east Africa is
   serving both as a test case for using DDI Codebook and DDI-CDI as part of
   their implementation, and acting as one of the initial use cases for the
   Decadal Programme on the subject of infectious disease.
   - Discussed collaboration between the DDI Training Committee and various
   training programs on the topic of research data management which CODATA
   participates in, including the RDA-CODATA School of Research Data
Science and
   work with FAIRsFAIR and GO FAIR around their competence centers in this
   area. A DDI introductory training workshop (51 participants) was conducted
   as part of the International FAIR Convergence Symposium
   <https://codata.org/events/conferences/international-fair-convergence-symposium-convened-by-codata-and-go-fair-22-23-october-2020-paris-france/>
in
   December 2020 as a first step in this collaboration.
   - DDI in general and DDI-CDI in particular featured in a number of other
   sessions at the FAIR Convergence Symposium including a high level panel
   setting the key technical themes for the week (over 200 participants), a
   session on combining infectious disease data, including the INSPIRE
   Network above (over 30 participants) and a session on FAIR data
   provenance (over 60 participants).

*ABOUT THE DDI ALLIANCE*

The DDI Alliance shares a commitment to meet worldwide demand for publicly
available standards and semantic products that support the documentation
and integration of social science data and other data necessary for
understanding the human condition. The DDI Alliance is an international
collaboration dedicated to establishing metadata standards and semantic
products for describing social science data, data measuring human activity,
and other data derived from observational methods. The DDI Alliance is
composed of its Member and Associate Member Organizations and is governed
by an Executive Board, a Scientific Board, and a Technical Committee. In
addition, there are working groups that focus on developing specific areas
of DDI.

*ABOUT CODATA*

CODATA’s mission is to connect data and people to advance science and
improve our world. CODATA is an international non-profit organization
mobilizing a global expert community. As the Committee on Data of the
International Science Council (ISC), CODATA supports the ISC mission of
advancing science as a global public good by promoting the availability and
usability of data for all fields of research. CODATA works to advance the
interoperability and the usability of such data: research data should be
FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). CODATA promotes
the principle that data produced by research and of potential value for
research should be as open as possible and only as closed as necessary.
CODATA pursues its mission through strategic activities to build consensus
and implement good practice, and through advancing data policies, data
science and data education.

Thanks,

Asha

-- 
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___________________________

Asha Law | Program Assistant, CODATA | http://www.codata.org

E-Mail: asha at codata.org
Tel (Office): +33 1 45 25 04 96

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Auguste Vacquerie, 75016 Paris, FRANCE
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