The governance of the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) ensures that the project meets its strategic goals, aligns with the broader UKRI/EPSRC Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) programme, and serves the needs of the scientific community. The governance structure is designed to maintain transparency, accountability, and responsiveness while adhering to principles of public service in the use of public funds.
Governance Structure
PSDI is overseen by two key bodies:
- Management Board: Responsible for the executive functions of PSDI, ensuring alignment with project objectives, and overseeing implementation.
- Advisory Board (AB): Provides independent national and international perspectives to guide PSDI’s strategic direction.
In addition to these PSDI boards, EPSRC are setting up an oversight board to assist with the continuity of review and oversight from the funding council.
Key Governance Activities
Advisory Board (AB)
- Comprised of external experts providing strategic advice.
- Chaired by Professor Richard Hartshort
- Meets at least twice a year to review progress and future directions.
- Ensures alignment with international best practices and funders’ priorities.
Read more about this on our Advisory Board page.
Strategic Relationships
PSDI maintains active engagement with:
- The physical sciences community: through large scale project, universities and directly to researchers
- National stakeholders: UKRI, EPSRC, and other large scale research project in other domains.
- International initiatives: NFDI (Germany), NIST (USA), NIMS (Japan), and global organisations such as RDA, IUCr, and CODATA.
Management & Coordination
PSDI is a large-scale collaborative project involving multiple institutions, primarily based at:
- STFC (Rutherford Appleton & Daresbury Labs) – Leading technology development and implementation.
- University of Southampton – Leading social and content-focused work packages.
- Additional partners including the UK Catalysis Hub, University of Sheffield (Royce Discovery Centre), Digital Curation Centre, Loughborough University and Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre. Read more on our collaborators page.
Project Leadership
The PSDI Leadership Team comprises senior representatives from lead institutions, alongside project managers and delivery officers. Current members include:
- Juan Bicarregui
- Simon Coles
- Brian Matthews
- Jeremy Frey
- Wenkai Zhang
- Nicola Knight