NFDI-MatWerk / FAIRmat Spring School 2026 in Erlangen – Research Data Management in Materials Science and Engineering
Why is it important?
Enabling a consistent and unobstructed standardization of research data will lead to substantial improvements in efficiency and synergies/collaboration among individual researchers and well-designed IT systems. In the era of digital infrastructures, this measure holds paramount importance in shaping the future of research. For the data to be sustainable and reusable, it must adhere to the “FAIR Data Principles”, meaning it should be “Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable”.
The FAIR principles will be a cornerstone of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) implementation. Nowadays, Data Management Plans (DMPs) have become a requirement for project applications in Horizon Europe and are increasingly being demanded by various funding organizations, including the German Science Foundation (DFG), among others.
The Spring School is co-organized by the NFDI consortia (National Research Data Infrastructure) NFDI-MatWerk and FAIRmat. NFDI-MatWerk focuses on the research area Materials Science & Materials Engineering (MSE). The central challenge is the digital representation of materials and their relevant process and load parameters. FAIRmat develops and maintains a FAIR research data infrastructure for condensed-matter physics and the chemical physics of solids, with NOMAD as its core research data management platform. NOMAD provides integrated tools and interoperable standards for the structured documentation, analysis, sharing, and publication of research data across synthesis, experiment, theory, and computation.
NFDI-MatWerk and FAIRmat will provide in this spring school tailored information and solutions for dealing with research data specific for the the mentioned fields.
Who can apply?
Advanced master’s students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers working in experimental and/or modeling/simulation in any field of materials science and engineering, condensed-matter physics, solid state chemistry and related disciplines (with or without experience in RDM).
The Spring School will take place:
📅 From 13 to 16 April, 2026
📍 At Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen
Registration Deadline: 13 March 2026
Participation is free of charge. Limited places – first come, first served.
- Introduction to Research Data Management (RDM)
- What is NFDI-MatWerk and how can I participate?
- Research Data Management with FAIRmat and NOMAD
- Structuring Research Data in Materials Science with NOMAD
- An introduction to PASTA-ELN
- Coscine: Research Data Management Platform
- Getting Started NOMAD: from raw data files to published datasets with DOI
- Managing Experimental Data with Electronic Lab Notebooks
- Automated Measurements and Structured Data Collection with NOMAD CAMELS
- Hands-on Workflow: Automated Experiments, ELN Documentation, and Data Analysis with NOMAD
- AI-Ready Data and Machine Learning
Advanced master’s students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers working in experimental and/or modeling/simulation in any field of physics of condensed matters, solid state chemistry, materials science, materials engineering and related disciplines (with or without experience in RDM), maximum 30 places will be available. Basic knowledge of programming, for instance in Python, MatLab or similar programing languages would be beneficial.
Participants should bring their own laptop. Please install a Python environment on your computer, for instance: Miniconda, PyCharm, Jupyter or at least IPython. It is required in some lectures!
Monday, April 13th
13:00 – 13:30 Welcome and introduction – Luca Ghiringhelli
13:30 – 14:30 Introduction to Research Data Management – Katharina Grünwald
14:30 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 15:30 What is NFDI-MatWerk and how can I participate? – Katharina Grünwald
15:30 – 16:00 Research Data Management with FAIRmat and NOMAD – Ahmed Mansour
16:00 – 17:30 Structuring Research Data in Materials Science with NOMAD – Hampus Näsström
Tuesday, April 14th
09:00 – 10:00 An introduction to PASTA-ELN 1 – Steffen Brinkmann
10:00 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 12:00 An introduction to PASTA-ELN 2 – Steffen Brinkmann
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch break
13:00 – 14:30 Coscine: Research Data Management Platform – Katharina Grünwald
14:30 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 17:00 Getting Started NOMAD: from raw data files to published datasets with DOI – Hampus Näsström
17:00 – 18:00 City Tour
19:00 – 21:00 Dinner at Bratwurst Röslein
Wednesday, April 15th
09:00 – 09:30 Managing Experimental Data with Electronic Lab Notebooks – Michael Krieger
09:30 – 10:00 Automated Measurements and Structured Data Collection with NOMAD CAMELS – Alexander Fuchs
10:00 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 12:30 Hands-on Workflow: Automated Experiments, ELN Documentation, and Data Analysis with NOMAD – Michael Krieger, Alexander Fuchs
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 16:00 Lab tours
Thursday, April 16th
09:00 – 10:00 AI-Ready Data – Luca Ghiringhelli
10:00 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 12:00 Data management, analytics, and machine learning using the MADAS framework – Martin Kuban
12:00 – 12:30 Closing remarks
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break & End of Event
- Michael Krieger – Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
- Alexander Fuchs – Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
- Hampus Näsström – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Martin Kuban – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Katharina Grünwald – RWTH Aachen University, IT Center
- Steffen Brinkmann – Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University
- Luca Ghiringhelli – Karlsruher Institut für Technologie and FAU
Organisation:
- Luca Ghiringhelli (luca.ghiringhelli@fau.de) – Karlsruher Institut für Technologie and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
- Ahmed Mansour (amansour@physik.hu-berlin.de) – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Pranav Nayak (pranav.nayak@uni-saarland.de) – Universität des Saarlandes
- Flavio Soldera (f.soldera@matsci.uni-sb.de) – Universität des Saarlandes, EUSMAT
Room 01.3569 (The room is located on the first floor. After entering the building through the main entrance, take the stairs and turn right into the corridor)
Freyeslebenstr. 1, Konferenzzentrum
Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg
910587 Erlangen, Germany
Accommodation is not included in the registration.
Erlangen offers a wide range of hotel rooms in various price categories. Participants are free to choose their accommodation, and we kindly ask you to make all bookings directly with the hotel.
Most hotel reservations require a valid credit card in order to guarantee the booking. We advise you also to check the cancellation terms with the hotel at the time of booking / reserving the accommodation.
Recommendations
Participation is free of charge. Limited places – first come, first served. If places are still available, the deadline will be extended.
Registration Deadline: 13 March 2026
IMPORTANT!
The participation is free of charge.
The event will take place in English.
For further inquiries: office@eusmat.net
Partners
EUSMAT – European School of Materials, Universität des Saarlandes
Institute of Materials Simulation (WW8), University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
