Entering the Second Funding Phase Together: Text+ Holds Kick-off Meeting

New tasks, new teams, and plenty of ideas for collaboration: on 27 October 2026, more than 90 members of the NFDI consortium Text+ came together for a kick-off meeting. Following the official start of the second funding phase in early October, the event provided an opportunity to get to know the new working structures, introduce key areas of work, and discuss collaboration over the coming years.

How can research data from different institutions be better connected? What opportunities does artificial intelligence offer for text- and language-based research? And how can Text+ services reach those who can use them in their research? These are some of the questions the consortium is addressing in its second funding phase. The project-wide kick-off meeting focused on developing a shared overview of the tasks ahead and bringing together the people who will be working on them.

From Infrastructure to the Research Community

In short presentations, the teams introduced their areas of work, tasks, and plans. Administration, which is responsible for project coordination and communication, among other tasks, and Infrastructure & Operations, which manages the operation and further development of the technical infrastructure, provide the overarching framework.

Alongside these, four cross-cutting areas of work are central to the new collaboration: Measure 1 (Federated Research Data Infrastructure) focuses on expanding the existing federated research data infrastructure so that data from different institutions can be found and used through shared services. Measure 2 (Interfaces between Data from Data Domains) addresses the linking of research data and metadata across collections and disciplines. The third priority, Measure 3 (Enabling Text and Language Data for AI), focuses on preparing text and language data for AI applications and on the responsible use of such tools in research.

Equally important is engagement with research communities, which falls under Measure 5 (Community Activities). This includes raising awareness of Text+ services, providing training and open educational resources, and advising researchers on questions relating to their data.

The presentations highlighted how closely these tasks are connected: technical development must be guided by research needs, data and services must be coordinated, and services must be further developed together with the research communities.

Space for New Connections and Shared Ideas

The presentations were followed by an interactive part of the meeting. Participants from the cross-cutting areas of work came together in four parallel breakout sessions. The initial focus was on getting to know one another, discussing their respective tasks, and exploring how to organise future collaboration.

Where do the areas of work overlap? What experience do the participating institutions bring? And which topics should be addressed together?

In the community activities group, for example, participants used a digital whiteboard to introduce their responsibilities and interests and collect ideas. Topics included new formats for events and exchange, the visibility of Text+ services, and collaboration between communication, training, and advisory activities. The other groups discussed thematic priorities and organisational questions, such as coordination between the participating institutions and the interfaces between the technical infrastructure and the different research areas. At the end, participants reconvened in a plenary session to reflect together on the breakout sessions.

A Shared Beginning

The kick-off meeting was therefore more than an introduction to tasks and responsibilities. It provided an opportunity to renew existing contacts, meet new colleagues, and identify initial points of connection for working together.

Text+ thrives on the diversity of its participating institutions and their expertise — and on bringing them together across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. The kick-off meeting marked another step in this direction. The task now is to continue the conversations and turn the ideas collected into joint activities.

For more information, see the news item: Text+ Starts Phase 2 with New Lead in Göttingen