2026-07-08
In June our Birthday Campaign focused on Base4NFDI per se. We took a a closer look at our service definition – what is a basic service, and what is it not?
What are Basic Services in Base4NFDI?
As the development of basic services progresses, we would like to clarify how we define the meaning of basic services and how those relate to community or domain-specific services.
Basic Services are designed to create added value across the NFDI landscape. Their goal is to address common needs that are shared by many consortia and also communities outside NFDI. To achieve this, basic services aim to gather requirements from a broad range of disciplines and stakeholders.
Importantly, there is no obligation for consortia or projects to use these basic services. They are offered as an option that communities can adopt if they provide value for their specific use cases.
Base4NFDI supports the development of those services by building on existing open-source solutions wherever possible. Currently, the term basic services refers primarily to services that are being developed within the Base4NFDI context.
Basic Services vs. Domain Services
The distinction between basic services and domain-specific services is often misunderstood. Therefore, we use this opportunity to clarify the difference between the two:
Domain services are typically developed to meet the requirements of a particular research community or discipline. While many of these services can also be used beyond their original domain, their development is usually guided by the needs of their primary community.
Basic services, however, follow a different development approach. From the beginning, they seek to incorporate requirements from multiple communities and consortia. This broader perspective has an impact on their design, integration strategy, and governance. This being said, once the services are operational, there is no fundamental technical difference between a basic service and a domain service. Both can be used across disciplines.
In short: The main distinction lies in the origin and development process of the two service groups. As a result, basic services are often positioned to serve a wider range of users and use cases than domain services.
Integration as a Core Objective
A key goal of basic services is to facilitate integration with domain services through shared interfaces, workflows, and interoperable architectures. This integration is not a one-way process. Input, requirements, and connections from domain services are equally important. The ongoing integration activities and our 5-Step Integration Plan reflect this collaborative approach.
Why Central Services?
In some cases, centrally offered services can be operated more efficiently than multiple local deployments. However, efficiency is only one consideration among many. Community requirements, sustainability, interoperability, and flexibility remain equally important factors when deciding how services are developed and provided.
Ultimately, basic services are intended to support broad user groups across NFDI, complement existing domain services, and foster a more connected and interoperable research data infrastructure.
What is NOT a Basic Service?
While you could learn all about what a basic service is and how it is defined above, we now want to clearly state what a basic service is NOT:
- A basic service is not something like GitLab, Rocket.Chat, or OpenProject.
- We do not host services. We are not service providers.
- We do not buy operational services and provide them to the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI).
