Gö*/KolaWiss

At the initiative of the GÖ*-LZA working group and under the project leadership of the GWDG, the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen), the University Medical Center’s computing center (G3-7 IT), and the Department of Medical Informatics (MI) are conducting a one-year project study on the long-term archiving of primary digital research data at major scientific hubs.
Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the study addresses four key areas: technology, law, organization, and costs. The Göttingen site serves as a case study.
The constellation of scientific institutions in Göttingen—characterized by both regional and supra-regional interconnections—can be viewed as representative of major scientific hubs across Germany. Using Göttingen as a model, the project is developing an organizational and business framework for cooperative long-term archiving (LTA). This involves evaluating existing cooperative structures among local IT units—and their links to supra-regional and international institutions—to determine their potential for expansion to meet specific LTA requirements.
As part of the KoLaWiss project, the team is first cataloging the digital data holdings generated across Göttingen’s various institutions. This process draws on, among other sources, the results of a comprehensive online survey recently conducted jointly by nestor/SUB (University of Göttingen) and ETH Zurich. The next major step involves developing and applying a classification system for the digital data to be stored, specifically tailored to LTA considerations.
Building on this foundation, the project examines the long-term archiving of primary research data—addressing technical, legal, financial, organizational, and funding-related aspects—and develops concepts for the efficient division of expertise, responsibilities, and tasks. Furthermore, the project establishes cost, billing, and business models for cooperative LTA at a single site (an "LTA node"). The findings are formulated in a site-neutral manner, ensuring they can be transferred to other scientific hubs. To the extent possible, nationwide funding recommendations are being compiled for the concrete implementation of organizational and business models for long-term archiving (LZA) nodes.