The prerequisite for sharing data is to publicise existing data and research projects. NFDI4Health supports this goal by setting up decentralised registers that can be used individually for each study site, the so-called Local Data Hubs (LDH). In the Local Data Hub, studies at the study site are described in a standardised manner. This includes the objectives and descriptions of the studies, the parties involved and other study documents, publications and references to the data. Access to these resources can be regulated via fine-grained authorisations. Visibility at a global level is ensured by transferring them to a central component, the German Central Health Study Hub. It can be used to search across all content published by different Local Data Hubs for studies that are of interest for further research questions and hypotheses and can be utilised. This also applies to research projects that utilise data from clinical care in order to answer innovative questions and validate hypotheses.

The aim of this call is to support the prototypical implementation of a Local Data Hub.

The call is aimed at data-holding organisations, in particular the academic clinical study centres of the KKS network and the data integration centres of the Medical Informatics Initiative.

Applicants should conduct research studies themselves or manage study results of other researchers as a repository. Basic knowledge of research data management and FAIR is required. Ideally, applicants would like to raise their profile as a data centre, promote the use of their data bodies and present local research activities in a transparent manner.

The call addresses three alternative groups:

• Track 1: Local Data Hubs for clinical study centres, supervisor: Frank Meineke

• Track 2: Local Data Hubs for data integration centres, supervisor: Matthias Löbe

• Track 3: Local Data Hubs for health data holding organisations, supervisor: Rene Hänsel
  

A track must be selected as part of the application process. Approximately three applicants will be funded in each track.

The aim of the call is to set up a prototype Local Data Hub. To avoid technical problems, each participating institution will be provided with its own system to which it will have administrative access. This system will be operated by the University of Leipzig for at least one year. In parallel, the system can be installed on site and the Leipzig instance can then be moved there.

The actual work involves entering at least six research studies in the Local Data Hub. These must be studies with a research question and a database from the field of medicine. Important study metadata should be recorded for registration and uploaded to the German Central Health Study Hub as part of this pilot. Furthermore, relevant study documents, publications and, if applicable, data sets are to be stored in the Local Data Hub. Local users are to be created and resources assigned rights in order to depict realistic protection scenarios. The HNSCC study from the Leipzig Health Atlas can serve as an illustrative example.

The work will be supported by three virtual, two-hour workshops in August, September and October, in which the participants will network, present and discuss solution ideas and give their assessment of the functional scope and user-friendliness of the Local Data Hub in order to guide further development. At the end, a short interview is conducted with each participant and a questionnaire is completed.

Between the workshops, the applicants should actively participate in the development of the Local Data Hubs and the networking of the community. The time required to participate in the call is estimated at 8 working days and must be completed between July and November 2024. After successful completion of the work, support will be provided in the amount of EUR 6,000 for personnel costs (gross lump sum, regardless of the number of employees).

Project funding is organised by Task Area 5 ‘Use Cases’ and Task Area 3 ‘Services’ of NFDI4Health. Applications will be evaluated by an interdisciplinary committee within the NFDI4Health consortium.

To apply, please use the application form and answer in a few words five questions about your role, the organisation you represent, the types of research projects you are conducting and how you intend to use and apply for an Local Data Hub.

Further requirements for an application are the absence of other funding for the planned project (no double funding from public funders) and approval of the use of funds in accordance with the funding guidelines NFDI300 of the German Research Foundation (DFG).