2nd Conference on Research Data Infrastructures (CoRDI) Proposed Session: RDM Infrastructures © Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Collaborative standardization of key performance indicator assessment within NFDI using NocoDB Évariste Demandt1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5705-0071, Zeynep Dirier1https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4816-3771, Manuel Feser2 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6546-1818, Fabian Fricke3 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3223-2079, Michael Goedicke*4https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2383-6764, Gabin Oumbe5 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6745-3464, Christian Schmidt*6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9568-895X, Torsten Schrade*7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-09532818, Thorsten Trippel8 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7211-7393, Lisa Amelung9 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-81371553, Anh Duc Vu4 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4035-2804, Cord Wiljes9 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2528-5391, Elena Wössner9 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8842-5307 1 IT Center RWTH Aachen University, Germany 2 Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben, Germany 3 German Archaeological Institute Germany 4 paluno The Ruhr Institute for Software Technology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany 5 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Scientific Computing Center (SCC), Karlsruhe, Germany 6 DKFZ German Cancer Research Center, Department Enabling Technology, Heidelberg, Germany 7 Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz 8 University of Tübingen and Leibniz-Institut for the German Language, Germany 9 German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) e.V., Karlsruhe, Germany *Correspondence: Michael Goedicke,
[email protected]; Christian Schmidt, [email protected]; Torsten Schrade, T[email protected] Abstract Germany’s National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur) comprises 26 consortia, each providing data management services for a specific domain or methodology. Consortia operate as cooperative projects funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). Additionally, the consortia are reflected as departments of the NFDI association. A central aim of NFDI is to cooperatively build a domainand method-spanning research data infrastructure embodied by the vision of OneNFDI, i.e., the desired convergence of multiple infrastructures for RDM across domains into a comprehensive, flexible network of interconnected services. This vision drives extensive cross-consortial collaboration facilitating data to become a common good for excellent research. Such collaborations include sections of the NFDI association addressing overarching topics 1 ; the cross-consortia project Base4NFDI 2 ; and task forces on governance, sustainability, evaluation and reporting, and the implementation of technical tools 3 . 1 https://www.nfdi.de/sections/ 2 https://base4nfdi.de/ 3 https://www.nfdi.de/community-meetings/
Demandt et al. | Collaborative standardization of key performance indicator assessment within NFDI using NocoDB (2025) "2nd Conference on Research Data Infrastructures (CoRDI)" NFDI as a whole needs to assess its impact as required by the Scientific Senate of NFDI and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and each consortium must monitor progress and performance in serving their scientific communities. Therefore, a robust monitoring and reporting strategy is needed, built on overarching KPIs collected with a standardized, yet sufficiently flexible database facilitating both internal evaluation and external reporting. In 2023, the Task Force Evaluation and Reporting (TFER) compiled and devised criteria for quantitative and—importantly—qualitative performance indicators, introducing distinct definitions and parameters for reporting on each consortium’s progress [1]. These served as a reference for the DFG’s design of a data sheet template with over 40 indicators, now compulsory in reports and follow-up proposals submitted to the DFG. 4 Several indicators pose socio-technical challenges to ensuring accurate and meaningful assessment. To support consortia coordination offices and the NFDI office, a TFER subgroup evaluated the open-source database tool NocoDB. 5 NocoDB integrates an intuitive spreadsheet-style frontend for user-friendly interaction with an SQL-based database backend, enabling API-based ingestion, querying, and retrieval of data. Its interoperability with thirdparty tools such as OpenProject 6 , Mattermost Boards 7 , Zotero 8 [2-3], Zenodo 9 , Apache Superset 10 , N8N 11 , and the Scorpion service indicator dashboard [4] facilitates workflow integration, multi-tool pipelines, and alignment with the existing tool landscape across individual consortia. Here, we present the development of a standardized NocoDB table structure differentiating between curation tables for systematically recording indicators manually or API-based, and reference tables for streamlined retrieval of requested indicators in a standard format. This combined structure remains flexible in allowing individual consortia to extend it while maintaining a standardized exposure view enabling cross-consortial research on indicators. A consortium can obtain a partially pre-filled, templated NocoDB base to integrate into a selfhosted instance. Alternatively, a consortium can autonomously govern a base within a centrally hosted NFDI NocoDB instance available to all consortia in Q2/2025. With its focus on standardization, flexibility and ease of use, our approach may serve as a blueprint for collaborative KPI monitoring in large scale research data management projects. We concentrate on the process to achieve a common understanding of the information structures and the practical aspects of collecting related data in a valid way. Keywords: Reporting, Evaluation, Key Performance Indicators, NocoDB Resources - NocoDB for NFDI architecture prototype: https://gitlab.rlp.net/adwmainz/nfdi4culture/n4c-utilities/nocodb4nfdi/- /blob/main/README.md 4 https://www.dfg.de/de/foerderung/foerderinitiativen/nfdi/formulare-merkblaetter; form nfdi1000 5 https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb 6 https://www.openproject.org/ 7 https://mattermost.com/ 8 https://www.zotero.org/ 9 https://zenodo.org/ 10 https://superset.apache.org/ 11 https://n8n.io/
Demandt et al. | Collaborative standardization of key performance indicator assessment within NFDI using NocoDB (2025) "2nd Conference on Research Data Infrastructures (CoRDI)" Author contributions (alphabetical) Author Contribution according to the CreDIT guidelines Amelung, Lisa Writing – review & editing Demandt, Évariste Conceptualization Dirier, Zeynep Investigation Feser, Manuel Software (Scorpion), Writing – review & editing Fricke, Fabian Writing – review & editing Goedicke, Michael Conceptualization, Software, Writing – review & editing Oumbe, Gabin Writing – review & editing Schmidt, Christian Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Methodology Schrade, Torsten Writing – review & editing, Software Trippel, Thorsten Writing – review & editing Vu, Anh Duc Writing – review & editing Wiljes, Cord Writing – review & editing Wössner, Elena Writing – review & editing Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Funding The authors gratefully acknowledge NFDI funding of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under the National Research Data Infrastructure, project numbers: NFDI4BIOIMAGE (no. 501864659), NFDI4Culture (no. 441958017), Text+ (no. 460033370), NFDIxCS (no. 501930651), NFDI4ING (no. 442146713), NFDI4Biodiversity (no. 442032008), the NFDI association (Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) e.V.) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) – funding code M532702. Acknowledgement We thank Feray Steinhart for suggestions and feedback on the table structure.
Demandt et al. | Collaborative standardization of key performance indicator assessment within NFDI using NocoDB (2025) "2nd Conference on Research Data Infrastructures (CoRDI)" References [1] Amelung, L., Anthofer, V., Danabalan, R., Demandt, É., Ebert, B., Elschner, E., Espinoza, S., Eufinger, J., Fuchsloch, S., Götz, B., Henzen, C., Hunold, J., Idda, T., Jansen, L., Krieger, U., Rodrigues, C. M., Meister, M., Miller, B., Pitroff, S., … Zinke, W. (2023). White Paper: Interim Report Reference. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10101412 [2] Dirier, Z., and Demandt, É. (2024). Eigene Werke NFDI (v1.0.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12720754 [3] Skupch, A. (2024). Zotero4NFDI: Kooperation von NFDI4Ing und Text+. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12605448 [4] Feser, M., and Scholz, U. Scorpion enables uniform KPI monitoring of heterogeneous Services within the Biodiversity Community [version 1; not peer reviewed]. F1000Research 2024, 13(ELIXIR):594 (poster), https://doi.org/10.7490/f1000research.1119738.1
