Collaborative Research: Facility: Next Generation Interoperable Data Infrastructure for Geoscience Sample Data (EarthChem, LEPR/traceDs, SESAR): IEDA Re-invented

Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA2): Solid Earth Geoscience Data from NSF-Funded Research

Society relies more and more on data to survive. Researchers need to make sure that data they create are openly accessible, protected for the future, and can be used again for further research and teaching purposes within the community. They need a home for their data that stores and curates the data and makes it accessible online to other researchers and others who may be interested in the use of the data. In this project, three data systems in the Earth Sciences (EarthChem, SESAR, LEPR/traceDs) that have for over 15 years served as digital libraries for data are joining forces through the IEDA2 facility to create better data sharing tools and practices and to make it easier for anybody to discover and access data from previously disconnected studies in a single location. These new tools will help humans as well as machines access data faster and with accuracy.

EarthChem is an open data provider for the geochemical, petrological, mineralogical, and related communities. EarthChem's services include data publication, data preservation, discovery, access, and visualization. In this project, EarthChem will undertake essential developments to modernize and optimize technical implementation, enhance user functions, expand accessible data holdings, and engage with a broad community of users and data facilities to establish best practices and interoperability standards for geochemical data. EarthChem will restructure and reengineer its systems to ensure that its data services scale to evolving community demands and that operations are optimized for efficiency, resilience, and sustainability. New developments and applications of data science approaches will support next generation modes of data-driven research by improving both human and machine-readable interfaces for discovery, access, visualization, and analysis of content in EarthChem data systems. The Library of Experimental Phase Relations (LEPR) and traceDs are databases that comprise results of published experimental studies involving liquid-solid-fluid phase equilibria relevant to natural magmatic systems. Data compiled into LEPR/traceDs will be connected to the EarthChem Synthesis for broader access in order to support modeling and data analytics. SESAR is a unique repository for sample metadata that provides services to make samples more discoverable and interoperable. SESAR will expand its user community beyond geochemistry and the Earth Sciences. In addition, SESAR's services will move to a new, independent, multi-disciplinary infrastructure for sample registration, a separately funded collaborative effort with cyberinfrastructure providers in biology, genomics, and archeology. IEDA2 will also substantially increase engagement with the communities and users it serves, specifically students and early-career researchers (ECRs). Online and in-person workshops for researchers and educators to learn about using IEDA2 resources that will be run and promoted in collaboration with the Science Education Resource Center SERC and the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT), aim to expand the reach of the data facility, while recruiting and supporting a new and diverse generation of geoscientists. Activities with students, educators, and researchers at City College of New York, South Dakota Mines, and Oglala Lakota College will broaden participation in data science. Integration of the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance into IEDA2 will support the community-wide adoption of these ethics in sample and sample data.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.