The Laboratory for Automation and Data Management is the newest part of KNMFi. Here, activities in terms of digitalization, data handling and information management are bundled. The lab will bridge multiscale structuring and manufacturing technologies and multiscale characterization techniques by gathering the process data and information of each method, shape them into a generally usable format, and then make them available in a defined dataset for further research. Two major focuses are set in the lab: 

1. COMPLAT / Chemotion
   ComPlat offers users a combination of different services based on software and databases. In the past, software solutions and concepts were developed to support experimental research groups in the field of data management. This work is used to build up an infrastructure to realise new data flow concepts and documentation or analysis processes. For KNMFi users, services are offered which, on the basis of the established solution Chemotion, allow the mapping of new research aspects. This will enable the integration of additional data types and documentation needs into a digital workflow. The offered solutions aim to support users in particular in their efforts to generate FAIR data that meet the requirements of research data management standards and fosters further analysis and re-use of the data. ComPlat will complement existing systems and develop new software and concepts according to user requirements. In particular, the focus will be on extensions to support data transfer, storage, annotation and management by electronic laboratory journals.
    
2. KaDi4Mat
   Without suitable modelling, simulation and analysis methods, the constantly growing request for information on materials behavior as well as the amounts of data from simulations and experiments will no longer be recordable. An important aspect is to be able to perform modelling and simulation in an efficient and rapid way. Here, the massive parallel solver Pace3D is used for materials research. To perform the corresponding data analysis smoothly, a structured storage of research data and related metadata is essential. In addition to uniform data storage, such systems can overcome inter-institutional hurdles, generate specific models, compare theoretical and experimental data and offer reproducible workflows for data analysis. Furthermore, linking data with persistent identifiers enables other researchers to reference them in their work.
   Kadi4Mat, the Karlsruhe Data Infrastructure for Materials Science, is a software to tackle the challenges mentioned, by combining new concepts with established technologies and existing solutions.
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The lab technology is to major parts based on hardware and software provided by the Scientific Computing Center (SCC), which is the center for information technology at KIT. SCC deals with innovative methods in supercomputing, big data and safe information technologies for research and applications. Additionally, large scale IT research projects are provided as well as the centralized IT management for KIT. SCC will contribute by developing and providing metadata expertise and services:

• Metastore is a metadata repository with integrated quality assessments for the optimized metadata management of large amounts of metadata documents. It plays an important role for the metadata management in different national and European projects, such as the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration Platform (HMC), the NFFA-Europe Pilot (NEP) and the Integrated Model and Data Driven Material Characterization program (MDMC).
• The FAIR Digital Object Concept draws on an ecosystem of internationally coordinated information services based on the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and the EOSC Interoperability Framework of the European Commission, allowing the deep exploration of heterogeneous and distributed data collections.
• The development of human- and machine-actionable vocabularies and taxonomies (ontology) will allow to build-up a metadata repository optimized for correlative characterization. By the integration of digital tools, SCC will support researchers in enriching their data with metadata, data curation, and data analysis.

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Brandner, Head of KNMFi
  responsible for the overall strategic direction
• Dr. Christian Kübel, Deputy Head of KNMFi
  responsible for the management of the KNMFi Laboratory for Microscopy and Spectroscopy
• Dr. Judith Hohmann
  responsible for the management of the KNMFi Laboratory for Micro- and Nanostructuring
• Dr. Nicole Jung
  responsible for the management of the KNMFi Laboratory for Automation and Data Management
• Dr. Susan Anson
  responsible for the integration of KNMFi within the Helmholtz Association and with external research infrastructures
• Thomas Schaller
  User Office
  The KNMFi User Office will help you answer your questions. Please contact us for information about technologies and services, and when you are experiencing any problem with the user facility.