The first UC4B event, a two-day conference, was held at Fraunhofer FOKUS in Berlin, 20./21. November. The aim of the event was to showcase foundational services, helping the audience understand the service offerings, explore how they could be integrated into the NFDI community, and critically evaluate their implications for technical interoperability and alignment with local policies. The interactive program covered various aspects of the services, provided insights from supporting institutions, and addressed issues such as alignment with other infrastructures on national and European levels. Base4NFDI, an initiative focused on developing and offering shared research data management (RDM) services for the NFDI community, was prominently featured.

Talk on Terminology Services for Plasma Sciences

The focus of Markus Becker’s group from INP Greifswald within NFDI4BIOIMAGE is the data management of imaging data in the field of low-temperature plasma physics and plasma medicine. Markus presented the results of the ongoing collaboration between NFDI4BIOIMAGE and the Base4NFDI project TS4NFDI to facilitate metadata annotation and standardization using a terminology service.

Poster on open-source Virtual Desktop Infrastructure developments

D. v. Suchodoletz and colleagues presented a poster on the current state of developments in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). During the breaks, demonstrations on the demo system showcased the ongoing progress, highlighting the quality and performance of the remote transport capabilities. The poster attracted significant interest from attendees, who engaged in discussions about its potential applications. With further commitment from partners such as DataPLANT, the VDI could evolve into a foundational service of the whole NFDI for various usecases in the future.

Poster on BARD – a virtual desktop for image analysis

Bioimage analysis often needs human input and multiple software tools, which usually run on desktop computers. As data sizes grow and advanced methods like deep learning require more power, these workflows often exceed the limits of local machines, making cloud solutions complicated. Yi Sun and colleagues from EMBL in Heidelberg presented their work on establishing BARD, a new platform that simplifies cloud-based bioimage analysis by offering an easy-to-use virtual desktop with familiar tools, solving compatibility and setup challenges. BARD is still in a developmental phase allowing usage for registered partners during trainings and collaborations. If all goes well, the service shall be transformed into a general service for users at large.

The conference was well attended, with nearly 200 participants joining on-site and online. It provided an excellent platform for engaging in discussions with colleagues during the breaks and the evening networking event.