Position statement and new associationUniversity of Hamburg Researchers Fortify German-Language Data Science Community

24 November 2025, by Newsroom editorial office

Photo: University of Hamburg / Esfandiari

The University of Hamburg boasts extensive digital research infrastructure. The University’s Hub of Computing and Data Science (HCDS) advocates for long-term support for digital and data science.

Research with large quantities of data has become relevant to more and more disciplines. This is why researchers from 21 German and Austrian research institutions, including the University of Hamburg, are now demanding greater political and scientific commitment to digital and data science.

Martin Semmann, managing director of the Hub of Computing and Data Science (HCDS) at the University of Hamburg, and Chris Biemann, professor of language technology and HCDS research director, are 2 of the 40 researchers who wrote and signed the position statement on the future of the data and digital science community. They demand that central institutions such as data- and digital-science centers be equipped reliably and in the long term to ensure sustainable data-intensive and digitally supported research. Currently, project-based funding is often still the norm—take, for example, the 11 data centers funded by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.

Research with large quantities of data transcends disciplinary boundaries

The matter is especially urgent because research with large amounts of data and digital methods has become standard in many academic disciplines, not just in statistics and informatics. Even subject areas such as history and health sciences see an increase in data-intensive work. One reason is that digitalization has made more and more data available digitally (for example, cellular and location data, open government data for cities, or data from health apps).

Therefore, the statement is just one of several steps currently being undertaken to bring together the voices in data-science research throughout the German-speaking world. Coordinated by the HCDS, the University of Bremen, and Kiel University, the interregional association Data and Digital Science Community e.V. (DaDiSC) has been founded. This should also strengthen the community.

"Institutions such as HCDS are essential for excellent and sustainable research in an increasingly data-intensive academic and research system. To exhaust their potential, we believe that data and digital science must explicitly be taken into account in the research, digital, and innovation strategies of the Federal and State Governments and funded through long-term funding lines,” said Martin Semmann of HCDS. Semmann also signed the position statement and is a founding chairperson of the DaDiSC.

Data and digital science at the University of Hamburg

With the HCDS, the University of Hamburg has had a central scientific unit for data and digital science since 2021. It strengthens data-driven research, consolidates existing expertise, and strategically expands this. Researchers can network beyond their own disciplines and use innovative data-based methods, AI technology, and digital infrastructure for their projects. An integral feature of HCDS is its methods center, which supports researchers in all faculties as they choose, use, and further develop modern data-science approaches.

The position statement’s signers demand, in addition to a stronger focus on research support, that data and digital literacy, meaning the ability to handle large amounts of data, be taught more comprehensively. “Together with the Hamburg Center for University Teaching and Learning, we work in funded projects such as the DDLitLab and ReAction that systematically anchor and further develop relevant skills for a data-intensive scientific world into the curriculum,” said Semmann. But competently navigating data, he continued, must be taught across more disciplines in a more interdisciplinary fashion, in cooperation with technical and non-technical disciplines.