FIZ Karlsruhe presents the ICSD database on the 34th crystallography conference ECM in Padua

Karlsruhe, September 09.2024 — In the last week of August, the 34th European Crystallographic Meeting, the most important European conference in the field of crystallography, was held in Padua, Italy. For five days, a varied program of workshops, keynotes, networking events and trade fair activities took place, in which the ICSD team from FIZ Karlsruhe was of course also involved. In addition to exciting discussions at our stand, the focus was, as Head of Department Silke Rehme reports, on the exchange of information and cooperation. Ms Rehme is very satisfied with the outcome:

“We can look back on a successful conference in Padua. It became clear that our API is meeting with great interest from many researchers. We were also able to highlight the importance of the joint repository with CCDC for the long-term storage of crystal structure data and further motivate scientists to use it.”

Questions of data curation, quality assurance and dealing with AI

In addition to discussions with long-standing cooperation partners such as Prof. Davide Proserpio from the University of Milan, who is using the ICSD data for a research project in the field of topology, there was another highlight: the ICSD team from Karlsruhe had the opportunity to engage in an intensive exchange with colleagues from the two other major database producers, CCDC and ICDD.

In particular, aspects of data curation and quality assurance were discussed - and it was decided to expand these discussions further: “Together with our colleagues from CCDC and ICDD, we agreed to continue to regularly exchange information on these topics in the future. Another important topic was the question of how we can support our users in research, for example on the topic of AI in crystallography, and how we can further expand our collaboration in the future,” concluded Silke Rehme at the 34th ECM in Padua