ELIXIR-UK’s Head of Node contributes to key discussions in the German research infrastructure landscape

Professor Carole Goble, ELIXIR-UK’s Joint Head of Node, attended two major meetings within the German research infrastructure landscape this autumn, contributing her expertise on data workflows, open science and AI-enabling infrastructures.

From 7–9 October, Carole delivered a keynote talk at the FONDA Fall Retreat in Potsdam, Germany, where members met to share progress across subprojects, present PhD research posters, and hear invited talks from leading voices in workflow science.

FONDA investigates methods to increase productivity in the development, execution, and maintenance of data analysis workflows for large scientific datasets, aiming to establish new abstractions, models, and algorithms for future workflow infrastructures.

Later in November, she joined the executive table at Data Infrastructures – Connected & Resilient AI Enablers at Falling Walls, a by-invitation-only session hosted by the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI).

The table brought together high-profile experts from science, industry and policy to discuss how research data infrastructures support AI innovation, and the legal, technical and social conditions needed to ensure resilience and digital sovereignty.

Participants highlighted the importance of cultural change, the value of high-quality research data and robust infrastructures, the shared challenge of system fragmentation, and the potential of carefully selected modular models, metadata middleware, and good scientific practices that must be brought into the digital era. 

Carole’s involvement in both events strengthens ELIXIR-UK’s visibility in European discussions and highlights our Node’s ongoing contribution to shaping the future of interoperable, resilient research data infrastructures.