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DFG Strategy Paper on Information Infrastructures
for Rese
The DFG (the German Research Foundation, Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft) has just released a new strategy paper on
approaches to developing and funding information infrastructues for
research over the next five years; this should be of interest to a
number of CNI-announce readers. I have reproduced the
announcement below. The direct link to the paper is at:
Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI
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"Taking Digital Transformation to the Next Level"
DFG Strategy Paper on Innovative Information Infrastructures for
Research
No 29
3 July 2012
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research
Foundation) supports efforts to enhance the strategic development of
information infrastructure in Germany. This is the underlying message
in the new strategy paper Taking Digital Transformation to the Next
Level: The Contribution of the DFG to an Innovative Information
Infrastructure for Research. The paper was adopted by the DFG
Senate at its session on 3 July 2012.
Against a backdrop of rapid change in the conditions under which
scientific research is carried out in the Digital Age, the paper
outlines current challenges of creating innovative information
infrastructures for research, explores new developments, and
identifies areas to be enhanced with targeted funding initiatives. DFG
President Matthias Kleiner: "Excellence in basic research is
unthinkable without state-of-the-art information infrastructure. The
development and continued expansion of this infrastructure is of great
significance as we look to the future. This paper will serve as a
strategic and thematic guide on services for information and
literature provision as well as for enhancing network-supported
collaboration in the coming years."
Prepared by the Committee on Scientific Library Services and
Information Systems, the paper aims to improve the performance and
sustainability of information infrastructures at universities and
research institutions. Combining analyses with recommendations, the
paper builds on the DFG's strategy paper "Funding Priorities
Through 2015", published in 2006, which led to the establishment
of innovative funding lines and activities.
According to the conclusions of both papers, the DFG fulfils a
twofold role: With its grant programmes it contributes to developing
and testing innovative forms of information gathering and processing,
of information exchange and networking. In addition, it advocates the
importance of comprehensive and networked information services as an
integral part of German and European research policy in the national
and international political discourse and consensus-finding
processes.
The DFG's contribution to enhancing the information landscape is
guided by the organisation's overarching goal of serving the interests
of science and meeting the needs of researchers. To this end, the
DFG's activities extend beyond the provision of information resources
to include support for web-based scientific practice across the full
spectrum. This includes retrieval functions, and new forms of
network-supported collaboration, as well as innovative electronic
publishing models and the reusability of research data. The DFG's
funding mission in the field of information infrastructure is
complementary to the basic mission of academic and scientific
institutions, libraries and archives. The success of its funding
programmes and activities depends crucially on the efforts of
universities and research institutes, as well as of the federal and
state governments funding them, to ensure the sustainability of the
activities and structures initiated by DFG grants.
In addition to these analyses, the paper also identifies specific
areas for future funding initiatives. These initiatives cover a broad
spectrum, ranging from the continuing development of national
licensing models for information services and the extension of
digitisation and cataloguing projects to new materials, through to
efforts to promote open access activities and to enhance the long-term
storage of research data. All of these measures will contribute to the
overriding goal of "ensuring that information of scientific
relevance, research data and platforms for scientific work and
communication are easily accessible" with the aim of
"delivering an integrated and sustainable system of information
infrastructures".
Further Information
The paper "Taking Digital Transformation to the Next Level -
The Contribution of the DFG to an Innovative Information
Infrastructure for Research", prepared by the DFG's Committee on
Scientific Library Services and Information Systems, is available for
download at:
Contact persons at the DFG Head Office:
Dr. Anne Lipp, Scientific Library Services and Information
Systems
Dr. Rembert Unterstell, DFG Press and Public Relations
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