RDA Groups

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RDA directly and logically tackles numerous data infrastructure challenges through the work of its Working Groups, Interest Groups and Communities of Practice.

What's the difference?

Working Groups (WG)

WGs are short-term (18 months) and come together to develop and implement data infrastructure, which could be tools, policy, practices and products that are adopted and used by projects, organizations, and communities. Embedded within these groups are individuals who will use the infrastructure and help in making it broadly available to the public. Any RDA member can join or initiate a WG. 

Learn more about  Joining or Initiating a Working Group >>

View the current listing of Working Groups>> 


Interest Groups (IG)

IGs are open-ended in terms of longevity.  They focus on solving a specific data sharing problem and identifying what kind of infrastructure needs to be built.  These groups identify specific pieces of work and can start up a WG to tackle those projects. Any RDA member can join or initiate an IG.

Learn more about  Joining or Initiating an Interest Group >>

View the current listing of Interest Groups >>


Communities of Practice (CoP)

CoPs investigate, discuss and provide knowledge and skills within a specific discipline and/or research domain. These groups are committed to directly or indirectly enabling data sharing, exchange and/or interoperability by serving as THE coordination focal point for RDA in specific disciplines/research domains. 

Learn more about Joining  or Initiating a CoP >>

 

WG Working Groups - IG Interest Groups - CoP Communities of Practice

15 Feb 2023
WG

Scientific Knowledge Graphs - Interoperability Framework (SKG-IF) WG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The Scientific Knowledge Graph - Interoperability Framework (SKG-IF) Working Group (WG) will target the definition of a framework to enable a seamless exchange of information among diverse initiatives regarding Scientific Knowledge  Graphs, intended as knowledge bases of scholarly knowledge content (e.g. repositories, databases, catalogues, knowledge graphs, LOD collections).

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02 Feb 2024
WG

Wind Energy Community Standards WG

Status: 
In Council review
Chair (s): 

The goal of the WG is to reduce data management overhead within and between organisations working with wind energy. This will be done by firstly creating a recommendation “Guidelines for improving FAIR data maturity in wind energy in practice”. This will then be used to create a wind energy FAIR Implementation Profile (FIP)1 , which is a methodology developed within the GO FAIR initiative. FIP will give the scientific and research communities the opportunity to express their choices of standards, technologies, tools and procedures by which they fulfil the FAIR principles.

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IG

Biodiversity Data Integration IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The group aims to steer discussion and coordinate efforts that create synergies among infrastructure developments around biodiversity data, and to connect these with RDA developments in the wider inter-disciplinary research infrastructure landscape. Infrastructures cannot operate in isolation but need to be part of the same value chain to deliver scientific outputs.

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21 Sep 2015
IG

Chemistry Research Data IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

Introduction: We are proposing a Chemistry Research Data Interest Group under the auspices of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), to foster diverse professional exchange on issues particular to data originating from the field of chemistry. Chemistry, as one of the central sciences, has fundamental impact on the fields of health, pharmaceuticals, materials, energy and many other applied sciences.

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14 Aug 2019
IG

Data Conservation IG

Status: 
Pending submission
Chair (s): 

Building on the work of the Data Rescue IG, the Data Conservation IG will both expand scope to all types of data (both digital and analog), and focus on decision-making topics including:

  • How are data sets prioritized for rescue or conservation?
  • How are risk factors defined, assessed, and/or categorized?
  • How is funding prioritized and/or secured?

More information will be added as the group moves forward. 

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IG

Domain Repositories IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

Status: Recognized & Endorsed The Domain Repositories Interest Group will bring together active data repositories that serve specific scientific disciplines. Domain repositories provide archiving services tailored to the needs of scientific communities, and they mediate between domain scientists and rapid changes in information and data science.

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IG

Early Career and Engagement IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The purpose of the Early Career and Engagement Interest Group (ECEIG) is to provide a focal point for Early and Mid-Career Researchers and Professionals, including those involved in various RDA-related fellowships and Early Career programs.

 

RDA members recognize that there is a need to create a space in RDA for those who are at the beginning stages of their careers. Specifically, RDA members recognized that Early Career Researchers and Professionals usually need additional support for:

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IG

Education and Training on Handling of Research Data IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The context of increasing volumes of data being created by researchers and the strengthening of requirements for research data management and data sharing has created demand for a new and evolving set of competencies and skills for researchers who create and use the data, and the growing cadre of professionals who support them.

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27 Nov 2019
IG

Engaging Researchers with Data IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

Good Research Data Management (RDM) is a key component of research integrity and reproducible research. Consequently, funding bodies, governments, research institutions and other agencies have emphasised the value and importance of good data management. However, discussions about data management and sharing are sometimes limited to librarians, data professionals, or researchers who are already passionate about data stewardship and open science.

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IG

Ethics and Social Aspects of Data IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed
Chair (s): 

Ethical and social issues with respect to data archiving, sharing, and reuse cut across many of the technical and policy work of the rest of the RDA.  Such issues are complementary to but separate from legal and regulatory aspects, since technology usually outpaces law and law itself is underpinned by ethical agreements and social contracts.

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19 Apr 2023
IG

Evaluation of Research IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The evolution of the evaluation of research from being mostly bibliographic index-based is now recognized to be indispensable to enable Open Science. In the same way that Open Science promotes the open sharing of FAIR data and other research outputs, evaluators must also value and consider these outputs as part of the wider research evaluation framework. The RDA is an appropriate forum for addressing the evolving requirements of research evaluation as they relate to Open Science practices.

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16 Aug 2022
IG

FAIR for Machine Learning (FAIR4ML) IG

The FAIR for Machine Learning (FAIR4ML) Interest Group will enable community members to discuss the various aspects of FAIR as applied to Machine Learning, looking both at domain specific and domain-agnostic use cases, and creating task forces and working groups as needed for specific guidance documents, recommendations, definitions and technical specification to that effect. The overall aim is to foster collaborations among researchers and developers who are interested in making machine learning (data, models, workflows, etc.) FAIR, along with those who contribute to the infrastructure and policies that support this.

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20 Apr 2023
IG

FAIR Instrument Data IG

Status: 
Pending submission
Chair (s): 

The FAIR Instrument Data Interest Group was conceived during a joint session at RDA P20.  We are working on the charter now.  If you want to be part of the forming group, join the mailing list!! 

We are also actively looking for co-chairs.  Please share your interest!!

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27 Nov 2017
IG

Federated Identity Management IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

A strategic element to maintaining a competitive advantage in research is by focussing energies in areas of innovation, which is facilitated by sharing of resources and support of inter-disciplinary collaborations at the national and international levels. The primary impediment to this resource sharing and collaboration is the lack of an effective FIM (Federated Identity Management) ecosystem.

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09 Dec 2015
IG

Global Water Information IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The proposed Global Water Information Interest Group (GWIIG) will serve as a platform leading to formation of RDA working group; as a venue for communication among RDA WGs and IGs focused on both technical eInfrastructure aspects (e.g. brokering; metadata and catalogs, dynamic data citation) and on related research domains (e.g. geosciences, agriculture, biodiversity); and as a coordination mechanism across a wide group of water information stakeholders, in particular those not previously involved in the OGC/WMO water standardization work.

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21 Dec 2015
IG

Health Data Interest Group

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The proposed Interest Group on “Health Data” (HD-IG) is a long-term initiative in the framework of RDA. It follows a rather successful BoF Session during the 6th RDA Plenary Meeting in Paris, which was attended by over 35 researchers and professionals from diverse backgrounds, who discussed several relevant issues, expressed significant interest in forming the proposed Interest Group, and helped shape its focus as presented here.

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19 Mar 2017
IG

International Indigenous Data Sovereignty IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The call for Indigenous data sovereignty (ID-Sov) —the right of a nation to govern the collection, ownership, and application of its own data—has grown in intensity and scope over the past five years. To date three national-level Indigenous data sovereignty networks exist: Te Mana Raraunga - Maori Data Sovereignty Network, the United States Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network (USIDSN), and the Maiamnayri Wingara Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Sovereignty Group in Australia. Similar initiatives are underway in Hawaii and Sweden.

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IG

Libraries for Research Data IG

Research Data have become a primary research asset that often requires continued access in the dynamic environment of mobile researchers, volatile repositories, transient products and short-lived standards. Libraries have looked after written research assets for centuries and now tackle the challenge of adapting their function to making data reliably accessible and re-usable.

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IG

Life Science Data Infrastructures IG

The life sciences are becoming increasingly data intensive, owing much to the huge improvements seen in large-scale gene sequencing and other molecular “omics” techniques. There is a need for large-scale sustainable and interoperable data management and storage methods that allow secure and easy access to and reuse of these highly complex data. Simultaneously, as omics-focussed life science research projects increasingly depend on more than one type of measurement, there is a widely felt need for the ability to integrate different data types.

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23 Jan 2017
IG

Linguistics Data IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The Linguistics Data Interest Group plans to identify, prioritize, and get to work on data challenges across the Linguistics domain. As a first step, this new group will focus P10 time on developing the discipline-wide adoption of common standards for data citation and attribution, and to improve research data management training in the discipline.

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IG

Metadata IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

 

The Metadata IG will concern itself with all aspects of metadata for research data. In particular, it will attempt to coordinate the efforts of the WGs concerned with metadata to produce a coherent approach to metadata covering metadata modalities of description, restriction, navigation, provenance, preservation and the use of metadata for the purposes discovery, contextualisation, validation, analytical processing, simulation, visualisation and interoperation. It will also liaise with the other WGs especially Data Foundation and Terminology, PIDs, Standardisation of data categories and codes and Data Citation. This IG activity relates to data management policies and plans of research organisations and researchers, and to policies and standards of research funders and of research communities which may or may not be official standards.

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23 Jun 2017
IG

Physical Samples and Collections in the Research Data Ecosystem IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

Physical samples are a basic element for reference, study, and experimentation in research.  Tests and analysis are conducted directly on samples, such as biological specimens, rock or mineral specimens, soil or sediment cores, plants and seeds, water quality samples, archaeological artefacts, or DNA and human tissue samples because they represent a wider population or a larger context. Other physical objects, such as maps or analogue images are also direct objects of study, and, if digitized, may become a source of digital data.

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IG

PID IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

The pervasive use of persistent identifiers is seen as a foundational element in anchoring and referencing research data in an interoperable way. The purpose of the Persistent Identifier Interest Group is to synchronize identifier-related efforts, address important and emerging PID-related topics and coordinate activities, including appropriate RDA Working Groups, to practically solve PID-related issues from the engaged communities.

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27 Jun 2022
IG

Psychological Data IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed
Chair (s): 

Aligning with RDA’s mission, the purpose of the Psychology RDA Interest Group (IG) is to raise awareness of the importance of data sharing, and to provide support with respect to the technical skills needed for FAIR data sharing within the Psychology community. This IG brings together Psychology researchers with an interest in open, transparent, and reproducible research methods and practices.

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04 Jan 2016
IG

RDA Privacy Implications of Research Data Sets IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

This IG starter out as a Working Group, to explore issues related to scientific research data sets that contains human subject information, as well as related datasets that have the potential to be combined in a way that can expose private information. The goal of the group is to develop a framework for how researchers and repositories should appropriately manage human-subject datasets, to develop a metadata set to describe the privacy-related aspects of research datasets, and to build awareness of the privacy implications of research data sharing.

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IG

RDA/CODATA Legal Interoperability IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

Status: Recognised & Endorsed This Interest Group will define legal interoperability of research data and articulate why it is important for data interoperability and reuse. The group will analyse four case studies and establish best practices through which legal interoperability if research data can be achieved and adopted by stakeholders.

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IG

RDA/CODATA Materials Data, Infrastructure & Interoperability IG

Status: 
Recognised & Endorsed

Status: Recognised & Endorsed The development of advanced materials inherently rests on access to a distributed materials infrastructure and materials research data to fuel discovery and innovation.Given the complementary missions the RDA IG and the CODATA TG will work together under the following statement in support of the exchange of material data.

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