TDCC-LSH Project initiatives
TDCC-LSH has two types of project strands to support collaborative projects in the Life Sciences and Health domain: Bottleneck projects and Challenge projects. These projects are meant to further support the TDCC network and support the digitalization of science as a whole. The TDCC-LSH is building on the working relationships and collaborations it has established with various stakeholders in the health and life sciences domain and aims to utilize the TDCC-LSH network to develop community-driven projects. In most cases, this is not about developing new scientific knowledge, but about finding and disseminating the right knowledge, and agreeing on its joint application. The projects will therefore focus mainly on support and networking.
*If you are interested in one of these projects, would like to join the initiatives or want to launch a new initiative: please contact the TDCC-LSH through celia.vangelder@health-ri.nl (Network manager), kimberley.zwiers@health-ri.nl (Community Coordinator Life Science) or fieke.schoots@health-ri.nl (Community Coordinator Health).
Bottleneck projects
The bottleneck projects are a one-off investment of €950,000 by NWO to tackle challenges described in the TDCC-LSH roadmap.
Title: The TDCC-LSH FAIR fellowship programme: Building a network of experts for responsible handling of digital research data
Keywords: Fellowship, LSRI, Domain specific data stewards, National network of experts
Project lead: Dr. C.W.G. (Celia) van Gelder
Duration: 18 Months
Status: TDCC-LSH Programme Board & NWO approved
Public Summary
Digital research data is increasingly important for research in the life sciences and the health domain. This programme aims to increase the knowledge needed to carefully manage this data and, if possible, make it usable for follow-up research. Research institutions in the Netherlands can delegate a fellow. The TDCC-LSH fellows receive training and work for a year under the guidance of a coach on their digital skills and on joint solutions. This creates a national network of experts that ensures that knowledge is shared and can be applied by all research organizations in this domain.
Responsible institution(s) and department(s)
● Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Systems and Synthetic Biology & UNLOCK
● Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Genetics & NPEC
● Naturalis, ARISE
● Leiden University (LU), LIACS & NEMI & NL-Bioimaging
● UMC Groningen (UMCG), Faculty of Medical Sciences & NEMI & NL-Bioimaging
● UMC Groningen (UMCG), Genetics, Genomics Coordination Center & X-Omics
● Amsterdam UMC (AUMC), Medical Informatics
● GO FAIR Foundation (GFF)
● Health-RI
Challenge Projects
Challenge projects are mid-sized projects with a duration of 24 – 30 months and a budget between €50,000 – €400,000. There will be several calls for projects. Projects go through a transparent, collaborative and community led TDCC-LSH review process to obtain a TDCC-LSH submission letter that is needed to complete the NWO funding application. The focus of the review process lies on prioritising the needs as perceived by the LSH field, connecting initiatives to strengthen project applications and ultimately to prevent fragmentation of project funding.
2025
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has opened the second TDCC project call in 2025 (call budget 800K euro per TDCC) to further support the TDCC network and support the digitalization of science as a whole.
Applicants can apply for a minimum total of €50,000 and a maximum of €400,000 for project proposals with a maximum duration of 24 months. Please note, that in 2025 a percentage of cofinancing is required (25%, to be confirmed by NWO). This TDCC call differs from other NWO open calls, due to the fact that a submission letter from the responsible TDCC domain is required before one can apply for project funding at the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Once new project ideas are submitted to TDCC-LSH, the TDCC-LSH team will explore similar projects and provide matchmaking opportunities that hopefully result in stronger community-driven projects. As a first step, we ask interested applicants to share their project idea via a short Expression of Interest statement.
More information on how to obtain the submission letter for TDCC-LSH can be found below.
The TDCC-LSH asks all members of the LSH research community to submit community-driven project ideas!
Submit a new TDCC-LSH project idea
2023-2024
The first TDCC call for projects launched in 2023-2024 and consisted of two rounds of funding opportunities for TDCC-LSH, with the first deadline being the 8th of January 2024 and the second deadline at 5th of April 2024 to submit an expression of interest. More information about the TDCC-LSH process of 2023-2024 can be found here.
Below you will find an overview of the challenge project initiatives 2023-2024 in different stages of development. If you want to know more or get involved, please contact TDCC-LSH Network or Community Coordinators.
Title: A FAIR tool framework for bioinformatics services, tools and workflows in digital Life Sciences and Health (LSH) research
Keywords: Tools and software, FAIR, research data management, communities, training
Project lead: Dr. H. (Halima) Mouhib
Duration: 24 Months
Status: TDCC-LSH Programme Board & NWO approved
Public Summary
Various tools and services are available for Life Science and Health data research, but users cannot easily find them or assess their quality. As a result, they are not used, or even similar tools are redeveloped. Together with developers, experts and users, we develop a toolkit for finding suitable tools and services. This is applied to existing tools and those under development and can be used with new tools in the future. With examples, training, interactive work sessions and collaboration with established platforms and communities, tools and services become sustainably accessible to end users and (further) development cycles for developers.
Responsible institution(s) and department(s)
● Maastricht University (UM), Department of Bioinformatics - BiGCaT
● Prinses Máxima Centrum voor Kinderoncologie (PMC), Research Department
● Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Department of Human Genetics
Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics
● University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Department of Genetics
● Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), Department of Computer Science
● Amsterdam UMC (AUMC), Department of Research Data Management
● Netherlands eScience Center (NLeSC)
● SURF, Research Development
● Health-RI
● Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Bioinformatics Department
● Radboudumc, Department of Medical BioSciences
Title: LEARN-FAIR: Life Science & Health Educational Alignment for Research and Networking in FAIR Data Management
Keywords: FAIR Data Stewardship, Community Building, Open Educational Resources
Project lead: Dr. M.G. (Martijn) Kersloot
Duration: 24 Months
Status: TDCC-LSH Programme Board & NWO approved
Public Summary
The LEARN-FAIR project intends to foster cooperation and knowledge exchange among FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable data) trainers by establishing a Dutch FAIR Trainers Community. Additionally, the project focuses on identifying training needs for researchers and data stewards, as well as existing educational materials, in order to develop new Open Educational Resources. To ensure that these materials meet the (future) needs of the community, the LEARN-FAIR project combines empirical research with active community engagement.
Responsible institution(s) and department(s)
● Amsterdam UMC (AUMC), Medical Informatics
● Health-RI
● Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Department of Human Genetics
● Maastricht University (UM), DataHub
● Radboud UMC (RUMC), Department of Medical BioSciences
Sign up on the LEARN-FAIR website to receive updates about the project.
Title: Training the next generation of FAIR-aware and AI-savvy data scientists for the LSH domain
Keywords: Education, data stewardship, FAIR workflows, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics and systems biology
Project lead: Dr. ir. P. (Perry) Moerland
Duration: 24 Months
Status: TDCC-LSH Programme Board & NWO approved
Public Summary
For professionals in life sciences and health (LSH), it's increasingly crucial to (i) efficiently link findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data with computational workflows that process the data (FAIR workflows); (ii) ensure that the data produced by FAIR workflows can be seamlessly utilized for artificial intelligence (AI) applications (AI-ready); (iii) construct AI models while integrating pertinent domain-specific knowledge (AI-savvy). The objective of this project is to create two new post-Master’s courses on FAIR workflows and advanced machine learning/modern AI technology for life sciences. These courses aim to address the existing gap in equipping researchers with these essential skills.
Responsible institution(s) and department(s)
● Amsterdam UMC (AUMC), Epidemiology and Data Science
● Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Bioinformatics
● Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Biomedical engineering
● Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), Computer science
● Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Systems and Synthetic Biology
Title: Prospective harmonization of variables through Common Data Elements – towards a core cohort dataset for cohort studies in the Netherlands
Keywords: Prospective harmonisation, Common Data Elements, longitudinal cohort study, core data set, FAIR data
Project lead: Dr. K.J. (Joeri) van der Velde
Duration: 24 Months
Status: TDCC-LSH Programme Board & NWO approved
Public Summary
Dutch long-term cohort studies monitor the health of large groups of people. They collect data differently, making combining data and doing research together difficult. This project aims to make data from Dutch long-term cohort studies more comparable. We will identify core study data, harmonize with existing best practices and add it to a national standard. This makes it easier for data from new cohorts to be used together for research. We also test whether our standard can be used for existing cohort studies and for specific disease areas, such as depression and diabetes. This project contributes to better data for research.
Responsible institution(s) and department(s)
● University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG); Cohort and Biobank Coordination Hub (CBCH) and Genomics Coordination Center (GCC) department
● Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC), Department of Public and Occupational Health (DPOH), Department of Medical Informatics (KIK), Department of Research Data Management (RDM)
● University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care (JC) department
● Erasmus Medical Center (EMC), department Epidemiology (EPI), Netherlands Cohorts Consortium (NCC)
● Maastricht University Medical Center + (MUMC+); DataHub, Medische Informatie Technology (MIT); Klinische Epidemiologie en Medische Technology Assessment (KEMTA) department
● Health-RI, FAIR Data department
Title: FAIRify your metabolomics data: achieving convergence on standards for reuse-ready data and workflows (FAIRify)
Keywords: Metabolomics, FAIR Data, FAIR Workflows, Data Stewardship Practices, Data Stewardship Training
Project lead: Prof. dr. T. (Thomas) Hankemeier
Duration: 24 Months
Status: TDCC-LSH Programme Board & NWO approved
Public Summary
Metabolomics is a data-rich field undergoing rapid growth. The FAIR principles provide guidance on how to make data Findable, Accessible, automatically Interoperable, and maximally Reusable. Scalable solutions for making metabolomics data FAIR can only be built on broadly accepted agreements on FAIR standards. In project FAIRify, the Netherlands Metabolomics Community will work together to develop processes for catalysing convergence onto FAIR standards for metabolomics. This process will be used to FAIRify high-priority data and will itself be reusable in other omics fields and after the project ends. FAIRify kick-starts a culture of FAIR data creation and stewardship for metabolomics research.
Responsible institution(s) and department(s)
● Leiden University (LU), Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) department, MAC, Faculty of Science Data Steward
● Maastricht University (UM), BiGCaT/NUTRIM
● Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Plant Sciences & Bioinformatics department
● Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences department
● Radboud University Medical Center (RUMC), TML, Department of Human Genetics
● Utrecht University (UU), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine department
● Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC), Genetic Metabolic Diseases department
● University of Groningen (RUG), Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy
● Health RI / Netherlands Metabolomics Centre (Health RI / NMC), Life Sciences & Metabolomics
● TNO, Digital Health Innovations
● GO FAIR Foundation