Instructions and Template	
for Final Reports of Consortia of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI)	
 	
Preliminary Note
The NFDI aims to establish and further develop overarching research data management and increase the efficiency of the research system as a whole. To this end, it is being built up by means of a community-driven process as a networked structure of consortia acting on their own initiative.

All consortia are required to submit a final report at the end of the project, which should relate to the project proposal submitted and provide information on characteristic features, on the work programme carried out in the course of the project, on the results obtained and on further work where applicable. In this way, final reports help to ensure the adequate use of funds in accordance with the programme guidelines, to report on the results of the funding to the funding bodies and to assess the success of funding. In principle, final reports must cover the entire funding period of a consortium, even if individual project phases have already been reported on in connection with previous progress reports or renewal proposals. Final reports must be understandable without referring to additional literature. The text of the report is the sole basis for evaluation. 
Deadline, Form and Scope
Final reports must be submitted to the DFG within three months of the end of the funding period (including the phase-out financing). They comprise a public part (F-1) and a non-public part (F-2 with annexes). Section F-1 are to be published by the authors on the NFDI community page on Zenodo; F-2 will be made available only to the NFDI Expert Committee and the DFG Head Office.

If you used artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of generative models for text or image creation when preparing your final report, please disclose this in the report in a scientifically appropriate manner. See the Portal for Research Integrity for details.

Final reports must be submitted as a PDF file via the elan portal and there must be no password protection or access restrictions for the purpose of reading, copying and printing. 
elan.dfg.de 

Final reports must be written in English, font Arial 11 point with line spacing of 1.5. Please note that section F-2 (all subheadings excluding the appendices) should not exceed 25 pages.

The DFG privacy policy applies, see www.dfg.de/privacy_policy.

Process
The entire final report undergoes a formal check by the DFG Head Office and is then externally reviewed. If the final report is accepted, feedback is sent to the report authors with the request to publish the public part F-1 of the report. Comments from the review are also shared.

Template
The following template provides a mandatory structure and a number of tables to be completed. Please adhere to this format and follow the instructions printed in grey (please delete the grey text before submission). 

<PUBLIC PART>
<FILE>
<This section is intended to be published on the NFDI community page on Zenodo.>

FINAL REPORT
F-1	Final Report Template Part 1, for publication 
1	General Information
•	Name of the consortium
Up to 300 characters, including spaces, no special characters.
•	Research domains or research methods addressed by the consortium
NFDI consortia define their scope based on the research domains or research methods they address. Please summarise research domains or research methods your consortium addresses in no more than 1,000 characters, including spaces.
•	URL of the consortium website and repositories used for publishing output
Please provide stable links.

2	Summary
The summary describes in no more than two pages the main results and notable success stories. While the summary is a retrospective one, you may also briefly outline challenges still to be addressed. Since this summary is for publication, it should be informative for a broad academic public, not only the communities served by the consortium.
3	Composition of the Consortium
Please list all (co-)applicant institutions, (co-)spokesperson(s) and participants, each with the duration of their involvement (mm/yy - mm/yy). Please indicate ORCID-IDs, if available.
•	Applicant institution
Applicant institution	Location	Duration	
			
•	Spokesperson
Spokesperson	Institution, location	Duration	
			
•	Co-applicant institutions
Co-applicant institutions	Location	Duration	
			
•	Co-spokespersons
Co-spokespersons	Institution, location	Task area(s)	Duration	
				
•	Participants
Please list the participants of the consortium in one of the two tables below, differentiating between participation as an institution or as an individual. 
Participating institutions	Location	Duration	
Institution 1	City 1		
Institution 2	City 2		
…			
	Add lines as required. Delete this table if you have no participating institutions.
	
Participating individuals	Institution, location	Duration	
Person 1	Affiliation of person 1		
Person 2	Affiliation of person 2		
…			
	Add lines as required. Delete this table if you have no participating individuals.

F-2	Progress Report Template Part 2, for internal use only
Remember the page limit of 25 pages (excluding the appendices).
1	Consortium
The following subheadings correspond closely to the funding criteria on “Readiness and Relevance of the Consortium” and “Consortium Structure and Viability”. Consult the Guidance Notes on Funding Criteria (DFG form nfdi120) for more information on the specific subheadings and the NFDI Guidelines (DFG form nfdi100) for general information on the consortia. 

If one or more members of your consortium are participating in other NFDI consortia, please list these multiple participations here, e.g.: 
Member 1	is also participating in 	consortium X and Y
Member 2	is also participating in		consortium Z
…
1.1	Composition of the consortium and its embedding in the community of interest
•	Please describe the composition of the consortium. Which specific needs of the communities has the consortium identified? What measures were taken to meet these needs? Please describe qualitatively, and whenever possible also by means of quantitative indicators, which benefits the consortium has generated for the communities that it addresses as well as for other disciplines and the research system at large.
1.2	The consortium within the NFDI / General Contribution to the development of the NFDI
How has the consortium contributed to the building of the NFDI as a whole? What has been achieved with respect to cross-cutting topics and/or common technical architectures? How has the consortium interacted with Base4NFDI and which basic services did the consortium participate in?

1.3	International networking
Which international cooperations has the consortium established? How has the consortium embedded itself in the international research and infrastructure landscape?	
1.4	Organisational structure and viability / sustainability
What kind of organisational and governance structure has the consortium established? How has it worked in practice? What are the most important lessons learned?
1.5	Operating model
•	Mode of operation and financial model 
What kind of operation and financial model has the consortium established? How has it worked in practice? What are the most important lessons learned?

•	Data storage and computing power
Which infrastructures with data storage and computing power have contributed in a relevant manner to the services developed and/or provided by the consortium? Please describe in quantitative terms.
2	Research Data Management Strategy
The following subheadings correspond closely to the funding criteria on the Research Data Management Strategy. Consult the Guidance Notes on Funding Criteria (DFG form nfdi120) for more information on the specific subheadings and the NFDI Guidelines (DFG form nfdi100) for general information. If you refer to existing information infrastructures, data repositories or reusable software, explain how they are (or were) integrated. List references in the appendix under Bibliography. 
2.1	Scientific relevance and quality of the measures
How successful was the implementation of the planned measures (with respect to the description in the proposal)? Which objectives of the work programme were achieved and which were not? What relevance do the implemented measures have for the community they address and/or for the individual members of this community? 

2.2	Metadata standards
To which metadata standards or other RDM standards did the consortium contribute? 
2.3	Implementation of the FAIR principles and data quality assurance
To what degree and in what way has the consortium achieved implementation of the FAIR principles? Which procedures and regulations for access to, use of and protection of (personal) data has the consortium established? What criteria and/or mechanisms to ensure data quality have been implemented?
2.4	Services provided by the consortium
Which services has the consortium provided? Which strategy has been implemented to ensure the further (re)use of these services? In describing the services currently provided by the consortium, distinguish clearly between services that consortium members provide as part of their institutional mission (Grundaufgaben) based on existing funding, and new services that have been established within the NFDI framework. 
2.5	Impact of changes of external conditions / constraints
How have developments in the research and infrastructure landscape impacted on the work of the consortium? What developments or changes were (most) relevant? How did the consortium react to these? Please only name aspects not already described above.

3	Additional Aspects
•	Equity and diversity are of general concern in research and not limited to individual criteria as listed above 
Please explain, if applicable, the consortium’s measures and achievements either in the preceding sections, e.g. composition of the consortium, integration of user communities, governance, quality assurance etc., and refer here to the respective paragraphs, or address the topic in full in this section.

•	Reflexions and comments 
What adjustments at the overarching NFDI association level, by the DFG and/or in the structural framework do you think would be useful?

•	Are there any other comments or observations from your work in the consortium that you wish to share with the expert committee?
This section is for comments or observations that do not seem to fit elsewhere.

4	Spending of Funds
Please complete the following table to show the actual spending of funds broken down by institution. List the name of each institution, adding additional lines as necessary. Add additional explanations as required. 
Overall Spending by Institution
	year 1
(Oct-Dec)	year 2	year 3	year 4	year 5	year 6
(Jan-Sep)	Total
in €	
Institution	Totals in €	
Applicant institution								
Co-applicant institution 1								
Co-applicant institution 2								
Co-applicant institution 3								
…								
Total spending per year								

4.1	Description and summary of contributions by (co-)applicants
Research data management is an intrinsic part of the research process, and research communities rely on professional management here. (Co-)applicant institutions are therefore expected to make appropriate financial and in-kind contributions to this area. Please describe the contributions made by the applicant and co-applicant institutions. The listing may include contributions towards services provided by institutions as part of their institutional mission (Grundaufgaben) that can be used by the consortium, but be sure to distinguish them from your own contributions towards realising the work programme.
Appendix
The appendix may only include the following information and documents: 
5	List of Outputs Produced by the Consortium
Please briefly list the different kinds of outputs (in the broad sense of the classes of the FRBR-aligned Bibliographic Ontology, FaBiO) that you have produced and published, including at least the following data: title, year and persistent identifier / web link. 
6	Bibliography 
Please list here the references cited throughout section F.2., except your own results, which appear in the section above. 
7	Additional Comments on Data Sheet 
You can include an optional appendix (max. three pages) with additional comments on your entries in the data sheet (appendix 4). 
8	Data Sheet 
Please fill out the Supplementary data sheet for consortia of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) (DFG form nfdi1000). Please upload a PDF copy of the completed data sheet as a separate document via elan and additionally send the original document (Excel file) via e-mail to nfdi@dfg.de.

Note: Submission of a data sheet is optional for consortia whose funding ends with the first funding phase of the NFDI.