PERSEUS Explains: What is NOMAD?

If you have been following PERSEUS, you may have already noticed NOMAD appearing in our news articles, conference presentations and community activities. Whether discussing FAIR data management, digital governance or scientific collaboration, NOMAD has become an increasingly important part of the project. But what exactly is it, and why does PERSEUS use it?

NOMAD is an open research data management platform developed within the FAIRmat consortium. It enables researchers to organise, analyse, share and publish materials science data, while also providing access to datasets shared by other researchers. By supporting the FAIR principles – making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable – NOMAD helps improve scientific collaboration and creates opportunities for future data reuse, including artificial intelligence applications.

Within PERSEUS, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin is developing a dedicated NOMAD Oasis—a self-hosted version of the platform based on the same software as the public NOMAD service. It allows research groups to securely manage unpublished or sensitive research data locally while remaining fully connected to the wider NOMAD ecosystem. When appropriate, selected datasets can be seamlessly shared with the central NOMAD platform.

At Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, the PERSEUS NOMAD Oasis is continuously maintained and extended with domain-specific schemas and digital tools developed specifically for the project's needs, with support from the FAIRmat team. This provides consortium partners with a shared digital environment for organising and managing research data throughout the project lifecycle.

By combining secure local data management with the possibility to share selected datasets through the public NOMAD platform, PERSEUS is building a robust foundation for transparent, reproducible and collaborative research. This approach not only facilitates collaboration within the consortium but also increases the long-term value of the project's scientific results by making them easier to discover, access and reuse.

As PERSEUS progresses, NOMAD will continue to play a central role in the project's digital infrastructure, helping partners manage research data more efficiently while supporting Open Science and the wider adoption of FAIR data management across the European materials science community.