Open Research Data Projects

Projects funded in the framework of the ORD Program

The joint ORD program of ETH Zurich, EPFL and the four research institutes of the ETH Domain has financially supported more than 60 research projects in the period 2020–2023. Funding supports researchers engaging in, or developing, ORD practices with and for their community and assists these researchers in becoming Open Research Data leaders in their field.

This page provides an overview of these projects. It highlights how researchers in the ETH Domain are currently applying ORD in exemplary ways. Some of the projects have already been completed, others are still in progress. The projects have been divided into three categories.

“Establish” projects help link existing ORD practices to a research agenda to establish them on a broader basis. They contribute to a shared and comprehensive understanding of ORD practices that can then become de facto standards.

“Explore” projects are the most extensive ventures in the program and are designed to explore and test early-stage ORD practices. The goal is to map processes of what an ORD practice might look like and develop prototypes. Through these projects, new teams form across disciplines and institutions.

“Contribute” projects help scientists integrate their research data into existing, often international, infrastructures. By standardizing the processes and making them generally accessible, the data are validated, and their potential is considerably expanded.

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Establish

Explore

Contribute

ETH Zurich

EPFL

Eawag

Empa

WSL

PSI

Open and Reproducible Materials Science Research (PREMISE)

Category

Establish

Institutions

ETH Zurich, Empa, PSI

Data type

Electronic lab notebooks (ELNs)/lab information management systems (LIMSs), Workflow management systems (WFMSs)

Field

Materials Science

Researchers

Giovanni Pizzi, Carlo Antonio Pignedoli, Corsin Battaglia, Bernd Rinn

Abstract

This project seeks to promote and establish FAIR ORD practices in Materials Science, with a focus on streamlining the treatment of experimental and simulation data on the same footing. Metadata standards for interoperability between electronic lab notebooks (ELNs)/lab information management systems (LIMSs) and workflow management systems (WFMSs) will be developed in the field of Materials Science, and combined with ontological semantic annotations. Best practices for integrating ORD into the research process will be collected, designed, and disseminated. Pilot use cases (focusing in particular on microscopies, spectroscopies, and battery research) that are applicable broadly to Materials Science research will demonstrate the deliverables. Open platforms like openBIS and AiiDA+AiiDAlab will be enhanced to meet FAIR requirements. These advancements will enable seamless interoperability between ELN/LIMS and WFMS. The ultimate goal of the project is to contribute to autonomous laboratories, where AI-driven simulations and robotic experiments expedite materials discovery and characterization.

See the website: https://ord-premise.org/

Open EM Data Network

Category

Establish

Institutions

ETH Zurich, EPFL, Empa, PSI, with swissuniversities partners UNIGE, UNIBE, UNIBAS, UNIL

Data type

Electron micrographs, tomograms, tilt series, diffraction images, spectrograms, electron density maps, atomic models, and processing workflows.

Field

Electron Microscopy

Researchers

Alexandra Radenovic (EPFL, Prof., CIME EM Facility), Andrzej J. Rzepiela (ETHZ, ScopeM), Bilal Qureshi (ETHZ, ScopeM), Christophe Copéret (ETHZ, Prof., Chair Steering Bord ScopeM), Christophe Briand (ETHZ, ScopeM), Daniel Böhringer (ETHZ, Head EM Facility Cryo-Hub), Elisabeth Müller (PSI, Head EM Facility PSI), Gebhard Schertler (PSI, Head, Div. Biol.&Chem., and Prof. ETHZ), Gregor Cicchetti (PSI, Biology Division), Henning Stahlberg (EPFL, Prof., and Acad. Director DCI), Marco Cantoni (EPFL, Head EM Facility CIME), Miroslav Peterek (ETHZ, ScopeM), Nicolas Blanc (ETHZ, Head of Facility ScopeM), Rolf Erni (Empa, Head EM Facility Empa), Spencer Bliven (PSI, Sci. Computing Division), Stephan Egli (PSI, Group Leader for Scientific Data Curation), and Volodymyr Korkhov (PSI, and Prof. ETHZ)

Abstract

The Open EM Data Network (OpenEM) in Switzerland will implement ORD practices for Electron Microscopy (EM). Cryo-EM has revolutionized protein structure determination, while materials science has seen a surge in possibilities, including 4D STEM data. This has led to increased data volumes and computational needs. OpenEM will extend PSI’s SciCat Data Catalog to provide open and FAIR access to EM data Swiss-wide. It aims to standardize data and metadata collection, streamline acquisition, facilitate data sharing, automate deposition in international ORD repositories, offer user training, and establish a sustainable structure beyond the project’s closure. A parallel initiative through the swissuniversities CHORD program funds the participation of partners outside the ETH domain. OpenEM complements the “EM frontiers” initiative to advance electron microscopy technology in Switzerland, included in the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2023.

See the website: https://swissopenem.github.io/

Open Research Data Projects

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