The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) is the home of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). Established almost 60 years ago, the CSD contains data for over 1.25 million experimental crystal structure determinations, the majority of which today are deposited directly with the CCDC by researchers worldwide. The CCDC develops scientific software and services that enable discovery and reuse of data and knowledge derived from the CSD in support of both industrial and academic research. The Centre also engages directly in research and undertakes a range of education and outreach activities.
CCDC and PSDI
Critical to the success of data infrastructure in the physical sciences is availability of trustworthy FAIR data collections that can be readily accessed for use in AI and other data-driven research activities. The CCDC will be working with other partners to establish the policies and best practice necessary to ensure that data resources made available through PSDI can be trusted and are AI-ready. We will also be contributing to consideration of licensing models that can be adopted to enable access to highly curated physical sciences data by the UK academic community. Building on this we will support the specification and implementation of federated data services that allow data from diverse data collections to be combined and aggregated in pursuit of research goals. Finally, we will together support activities aimed at establishing data standards critical to data interoperability and reuse, in particular in the area of Crystal Structure Prediction.