How we operate
Here you will find explanations of the governance processes of NFDI4Objects.
Governance and regulations
The NFDI4Objects consortium is a working group within the NFDI project, which operates on the basis of the Bund-Länder-Vereinbarung (BLV) (Federal-Länder Agreement) of 26 November 2018. The consortium brings together main applicants, co-applicants and participating institutions. NFDI4Objects is also a “consortium according to the statutes” of the Verein Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) e.V. (National Research Data Infrastructure Association) and thus a legally dependent association department. As a consortium according to the BLV, NFDI4Objects is also not legally independent and does not appear externally in legal transactions.
The basis for NFDI4Objects’ activities as a consortium in accordance with the statutes is § 22 of the association’s statutes:
- In order for “consortia according to the BLV” to be able to participate in the association, legally dependent departments are set up that are to correspond to the “consortia according to the BLV” in their structure and orientation. These legally dependent departments, hereinafter referred to as “consortia according to the statutes”, are set up, defined, demarcated and dissolved at the suggestion of the director and by resolution of the scientific senate. Only members of the association in accordance with § 3 sections 2 and 3 can be members of a “consortium in accordance with the statutes”.
- “Consortia in accordance with the statutes” elect a spokesperson from among their members, who represents the interests of the consortium and the members cooperating in it within the association, as well as a deputy in each case.
- At the suggestion of the spokesperson of a “Consortium under the Statutes” and by resolution of the Scientific Senate, members of the association can be assigned to or removed from a “Consortium under the Statutes”. The structure of the “Consortia under the Statutes” should largely correspond to the structure of the “Consortia under the BLV” in the sense that the assignment of the “Consortia under the Statutes” is based on the structure of the members of the “Consortia under the BLV”.
- “Consortia according to the statutes” are associations of users and providers of research data that are designed for long-term cooperation and that promote the purpose of the statutes in accordance with these statutes. They implement the standards set by the Scientific Senate in accordance with the framework defined by the consortium assembly in accordance with § 25 paragraph 2.
The “Guidelines for consortia in the NFDI Association” also explain that, in accordance with the statutes, consortia should be based on the structure of the members of the consortia in accordance with the BLV. According to the statutes (Section 3), legal entities can become members of the association. It may be the case that member organisations of a consortium in accordance with the BLV are not or not yet members of the NFDI association and therefore cannot belong to a consortium in accordance with the statutes. Furthermore, a consortium in accordance with the BLV may include participants that are not legal entities and therefore cannot become association members.
The statutes also offer the option of assigning association members who do not belong to the consortium in accordance with the BLV to the consortium in accordance with the statutes. This means that organisations that, for various reasons, do not want to or cannot participate in the consortium in accordance with the BLV can still get involved in the associated consortium in accordance with the statutes as part of the association’s activities. Consortia in accordance with the statutes may therefore have a slightly different scope than consortia in accordance with the BLV. The aim is for consortia according to the statutes and consortia according to the BLV to match as closely as possible in their membership structure and to coordinate closely. However, as this guide will explain below, there are differences, for example, in the voting rights of the participating organisations of consortia according to the statutes and of consortia according to the BLV.
The basis for the activities of NFDI4Objects as a consortium according to the BLV is the “Forwarding and Cooperation Agreement” concluded between the partners working together in the consortium. This contract regulates the forwarding of funds and the administrative and content-related cooperation between the partners in the consortium in accordance with the BLV, based on the application. In turn, the DFG’s annual award letters and funding guidelines form the basis for this contractually regulated cooperation. Section 9 of the “Funding and Cooperation Agreement” regulates the coordination of project work and financial requirements as well as the quality assurance of the work. Paragraph (2) contains the regulations for the committees (working groups) of NFDI4Objects, which are described under Structure of the consortium.
Contributors
NFDI4Objects is not only open to the participation of all interested parties, we also depend on it according to the “bottom-up” principle of the NFDI. Therefore, there are numerous opportunities to participate in NFDI4Objects (/en/participate/), even if the home institution is not officially part of the application consortium under the Federal-State Agreement or the institution is not in the NFDI association and assignment to the NFDI4Objects department (see below membership of NFDI4Objects. This means that the number of people involved in NFDI4Objects is significantly larger and exceeds the number stated in the work programme of the DFG proposal for the federal and state funding of the NFDI. Opportunities for participation arise, for example, in community clusters and temporary working groups, in the collaboration on documents or their commenting, or in the participation in NFDI4Objects events such as the annual community meeting. Opportunities and calls for participation are regularly announced via the various information channels. However, we also welcome direct contact, where we can explain the possibilities directly.
Membership within NFDI4Objects
The NFDI4Objects consortium, consisting of eleven co-applicants and over 60 participating institutions, is united by a common interest in humanity’s material heritage and the resulting challenges in research data management. In order to combine the two, NFDI4Objects reflects the entire spectrum of the object-related research community in terms of content, geography and time. The participating institutions have joined forces to design NFDI4Objects in terms of content and structure in a bottom-up process. Through close links with citizen science projects and archaeological companies, civil society actors are also taken into account.
Our members are divided into co-applicants, participants and supporter. Institutions that are not yet officially involved in NFDI4Objects can be accepted as participating institutions (“Participants”) if they take on corresponding tasks. Inclusion as a supporting organisation is less restrictive. If you are interested, please contact our helpdesk. Interested institutions can also become a member of the NFDI association and be assigned to specialist consortia.
You can find an up-to-date overview of our members on the portal.