The Research Data Alliance (RDA) builds the social and technical bridges to enable the open sharing and re-use of data.
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) was launched as a community-driven initiative in 2013 by the European Commission, the United States Government's National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation with the goal of building the social and technical infrastructure to enable open sharing and re-use of data.
RDA has a grass-roots, inclusive approach covering all data lifecycle stages, engaging data producers, users and stewards, addressing data exchange, processing, and storage. It has succeeded in creating the neutral social platform where international research data experts meet to exchange views and to agree on topics including social hurdles on data sharing, education and training challenges, data management plans and certification of data repositories, disciplinary and interdisciplinary interoperability, as well as technological aspects.
The RDA Foundation provides the core business operations of RDA and represents RDA globally. Learn more.
Citing RDA
Please note that, to enable us to track publication about RDA, we ask you to add this acknowledgement text to your RDA-related publications:
“This work was developed as part of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) ‘WG/IG/CoP’ entitled ‘long name (short name)’, and we acknowledge the support provided by the RDA community and structures."
Here are two articles you can use when citing RDA:
- Berman, F, Wilkinson, R, Wood, J (2014) Guest editorial: Building global infrastructure for data sharing and exchange through the Research Data Alliance. D-Lib Magazine 20(1/2): . doi:10.1045/january2014-berman.
- Berman, F. (2019): The Research Data Alliance --The First Five Years, Supplement to: Berman, F., & Crosas, M. (2020). The Research Data Alliance: Benefits and Challenges of Building a Community Organization. Harvard Data Science Review, 2(1). doi: 10.1162/99608f92.5e126552
The RDA Vision and Mission
- The RDA Vision: Researchers and innovators openly share and re-use data across technologies, disciplines, and countries to address the grand challenges of society.
- The RDA Mission: RDA builds the social and technical bridges that enable open sharing and re-use of data.
RDA Guiding Principles
- Openness – Membership is open to all interested individuals who subscribe to the RDA’s Guiding Principles. RDA community meetings and processes are open, and the deliverables of RDA Working Groups will be publicly disseminated.
- Consensus – The RDA moves forward by achieving consensus among its membership. RDA processes and procedures include appropriate mechanisms to resolve conflicts.
- Inclusivity– The RDA seeks to promote broad, balanced and inclusive representation of its membership and stakeholder communities.
- Harmonization – The RDA works to achieve harmonization across data standards, policies, technologies, infrastructure, and communities.
- Community-driven – The RDA is a public, community-driven body constituted of volunteer members and organizations, supported by the RDA Secretariat.
- Non-profit and technology-neutral - RDA does not promote, endorse, or sell commercial products, technologies, or services and the development of open and re-usable recommendations and outputs within the RDA is mandatory.
RDA Pathways
The RDA Pathways were created by the RDA’s Technical Advisory Board to help community members navigate all RDA activities, including Plenary sessios, groups, recommendations and outputs, and current ambassadors. Read more about the Pathways.
RDA Working and Interest Groups
RDA addresses the need for open and interoperable sharing of research data and builds the social, technical and cross-disciplinary links to enable such sharing on a global scale.
RDA Members come together through focused Working Groups and Interest Groups, formed by experts from all around the world – from academia, private sector and government. Participation in RDA is open to anyone who agrees to its guiding principles of openness, consensus, inclusivity and harmonisation, with a community-driven, non-profit and technology-neutral approach.
RDA Communities of Practice
In an effort to build discipline or domain specific communities, the RDA introduced Communities of Practice (CoP) to its membership in December 2020. CoPs investigate, discuss and provide knowledge and skills within a specific discipline and/or research domain. Composed of experts from that area, CoPs are committed to directly or indirectly enabling data sharing, exchange and/or interoperability by serving as THE coordination focal point for RDA in those specific disciplines/research domains.
RDA Recommendations and Outputs
RDA Outputs are the technical and social infrastructure solutions developed by RDA Working Groups or Interest Groups that enable data sharing, exchange, and interoperability. They have an important impact on:
- Solving data sharing problems
- Adoption in infrastructure environments by individuals, projects and organisations
To improve global data sharing, exchange and interoperability, RDA works on raising awareness and expanding the adoption of these outputs across all regions of the world.
RDA in a Nutshell
With more than 14.000 individual members, 80 organisational and affiliate members and over 35 regional networks covering 152 countries (February 2024), the RDA provides a neutral space where its members can come together through focused global Communities of Practice, Working and Interest Groups to develop and adopt infrastructure that promotes data-sharing and data-driven research, and accelerate the growth of a cohesive data community that integrates contributors across domain, research, national, geographical and generational boundaries. You can find a brief introduction to the RDA with links to further information here.
In the RDA in a Nutshell presentations below you can find general information on the Research Data Alliance. You are encouraged to use and integrate the RDA in a Nutshell slides if you would like to present details on RDA.
- 2024
- 2023
-
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - Oct-Dec 2023
RDA in a Nutshell - December 2023
RDA in a Nutshell - November 2023
RDA in a Nutshell - October 2023
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - July-Sept 2023
RDA in a Nutshell - September 2023
RDA in a Nutshell - August 2023
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - April - June 2023
RDA in a Nutshell - April 2023
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - January - March 2023
RDA in a Nutshell - March 2023
- 2022
-
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - October - December 2022
RDA in a Nutshell - December 2022
RDA in a Nutshell - November 2022
RDA in a Nutshell - October 2022
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - July - September 2022
RDA in a Nutshell - September 2022
RDA in a Nutshell - August 2022
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - April - June 2022
RDA in a Nutshell - April 2022
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - January - March 2022
RDA in a Nutshell - March 2022
- 2021
-
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - October - December 2021
RDA in a Nutshell - December 2021
RDA in a Nutshell - November 2021
RDA in a Nutshell - October 2021
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - July - September 2021
RDA in a Nutshell - September 2021
RDA in a Nutshell - August 2021
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - April - June 2021
RDA in a Nutshell - April 2021
RDA Groups and Outputs Digest - January - March 2021
RDA in a Nutshell - March 2021
- 2020
-
- RDA in a Nutshell - December 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - November 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - October 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - September 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - August 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - July 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - June 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - May 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - April 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - March 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - February 2020
- RDA in a Nutshell - January 2020
- 2019
-
- RDA in a Nutshell - December 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - November 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - October 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - September 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - August 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - July 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - June 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - May 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - April 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - March 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - February 2019
- RDA in a Nutshell - January 2019
- 2018
-
- RDA in a Nutshell - December 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - November 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - October 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - September 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - August 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - July 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - June 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - May 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - April 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - March 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - February 2018
- RDA in a Nutshell - January 2018
- 2017
-
- RDA in a Nutshell - December 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - November 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - October 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - September 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - August 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - July 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - June 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - May 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - April 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - March 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - February 2017
- RDA in a Nutshell - January 2017
- 2016
-
- RDA in a Nutshell - December 2016
- RDA in a Nutshell - November 2016
- RDA in a Nutshell - October 2016
- RDA in a Nutshell - September 2016
- RDA in a Nutshell - August 2016
- RDA in a Nutshell - July 2016
- RDA in a Nutshell - June 2016
- RDA in a Nutshell - May 2016
- RDA membership statistics April 2016
- RDA membership statistics March 2016
- RDA membership statistics February 2016
- RDA membership statistics January 2016
- 2015
-
- RDA membership statistics December 2015
- RDA membership statistics November 2015
- RDA membership statistics October 2015
- RDA membership statistics September 2015
- RDA membership statistics August 2015
- RDA membership statistics July 2015
- RDA membership statistics June 2015
- RDA membership statistics May 2015
- RDA membership statistics April 2015
- RDA membership statistics March 2015
- RDA membership statistics February 2015
View them on Slideshare at www.slideshare.net/ResearchDataAlliance
Some statistics on our members
Watch this space for updated statistics on the RDA Membership issued on a monthly basis.
Discover More
The Value of RDA for
