Today the first meeting of the consortium assembly of the NFDI association took place online. In this meeting the nine initial consortia kicked off another integral part of the NFDI governance. A couple of important personnel decisions were made. The Chair (Christoph Steinbeck of NFDI4Chem) and Vice Chair (Dirk von Suchodoletz of DataPLANT) of the Consortium Assembly have been newly established. These two offices were not previously provided for in the articles of the NFDI Association, but were deemed useful by the Consortium Assembly. They are to be defined in the rules of procedure of the body.

The following persons were then elected as experts of the consortium assembly for the scientific senate:

Barbara Ebert (NFDI4BioDiversity) Robert Schmitt (NFDI4Ing) Torsten Schrade (NFDI4Culture) Christof Wolf (KonsortSWD)

A key point of the gathering was the discussion of section concepts, especially after the announcement of the new guidelines of base services consortia by the DFG. Based on a joint strategy process, four cross-cutting topics were highly prioritized and working groups submitted a concept for each. These concepts are to be finalized in the coming weeks and then submitted to the Scientific Senate for establishment. We will keep you further informed in this regard in a timely manner on the ongoing process and the consequences for DataPLANT. The next assembly is scheduled for the beginning of next year.