Appendix C: Acknowledgements¶
First and foremost, thank you to all the active members of the working group for their dedication and commitment to the programme over the eight-week period (April - June 2026). Thank you for attending the many sessions held at different times across the globe, spanning different regions and time zones, and for your openness, willingness, and enthusiasm to share knowledge each week. It is this collective effort that has led to the generation of such breadth and depth of content, culminating in this comprehensive Blueprint.
Special thanks to Connie Clare, RDA Community Development Manager and facilitator of the working group for her passion, drive and dedication to this activity. Much gratitude to Hilary Hanahoe (RDA Secretary General) and Marcy Collinson (Director, Worldwide Academic Research at Microsoft) for bringing this public-private partnership between RDA and Microsoft to fruition, and to the software engineers Benjamin Wright-Jones and George Earl for always being on hand to support the planning and execution of the sessions. Their time, expertise, and effort, particularly in developing the reference architecture in Section 9 has been invaluable. Grateful thanks also extend to Trish Radotic (RDA Secretariat) for serving as a sounding board and providing logistical support throughout the process.
Blueprint Authors¶
As of July 2026, the Data Director Agentic AI Blueprint Working Group comprises 104 members. A significant number of these individuals have actively contributed to the development of this Blueprint by attending sessions, participating in discussions, and collaboratively developing the Blueprint through shared notes, Miro boards, and direct editorial contributions.
| No. | First Name | Last Name | Role | Affiliation | Country | ORCID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maricela | Abarca | Data Curator | Stanford University Libraries | United States | 0000-0002-0890-8887 |
| 2 | Lindsey | Anderson | Computational Scientist | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) | United States | 0000-0002-8741-7823 |
| 3 | Julieta | Arancio | Senior Advisor | ORCA | Germany | |
| 4 | Amir | Aryani | Head of AI Group | Swinburne University of Technology | Australia | |
| 5 | Rossella | Aversa | Head of Department | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) | Germany | 0000-0003-2534-0063 |
| 6 | Amira | Azizan | Data Steward | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) / Data Terra | France | |
| 7 | Sudhanshu | Bajpai | Librarian | Indian Institute of Technology BHU (IIT BHU) | India | |
| 8 | Laure | Berti-Equille | Research Director | Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) | France | |
| 9 | Paty | Buendia | Technical Director | Lifetime Omics | France / United States | |
| 10 | James | Cannon | Research HCP and Storage Engineer | University of Michigan | United States | |
| 11 | Connie | Clare | Community Development Manager | Research Data Alliance (RDA) | United Kingdom | 0000-0002-4369-196X |
| 12 | Francis P. | Crawley | Executive Director | EOSC-Future/RDA Artificial Intelligence & Data Visitation (AIDV) WG; HGP2; GCPA; SIDCER | Belgium | 0000-0002-6893-5916 |
| 13 | Mohamed | Drira | Associate Professor | Saint Mary’s University | Canada | 0000-0002-8952-8148 |
| 14 | George | Earl | Software Engineer | Microsoft | Canada | |
| 15 | Joe | Edgerton | Research Data Management Librarian | University of Virginia | United States | 0009-0000-1292-6642 |
| 16 | Lars | Eklund | Domain Specialist Sensitive data | National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden (NBIS) / Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science (UPPMAX) / Swedish National Data Service (SND), Uppsala University | Sweden | |
| 17 | Eva Eleanora | Ferradosa | Researcher | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands | |
| 18 | Roberta | Ferretti | Researcher | Italian National Research Council – Institute of Marine Engineering (CNR-INM) | Italy | 0000-0002-1985-2145 |
| 19 | Angela | Fuentes Pardo | Data Steward | Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) Data Centre | Sweden | |
| 20 | Marcelo | Garcia | Library Systems & Integrated Services Lead | King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) | Saudi Arabia | |
| 21 | Mohit | Garg | Assistant Librarian | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) | India | |
| 22 | Su Nee | Goh | Librarian | Nanyang Technological University | Singapore | |
| 23 | Cristina | Gonzalez | AI Data Specialist | Senscience | Switzerland | |
| 24 | Ritu | Gupta | Business Process Consultant | University of Michigan | United States | |
| 25 | Joe | Heffer | Senior Research Data Engineer | University of Sheffield | United Kingdom | 0000-0001-8733-1117 |
| 26 | Simon | Hodson | Executive Director | Committee on Data of the International Science Council (CODATA) | France | |
| 27 | Jenn | Huck | Associate Director, Research Data Services | University of Virginia | United States | 0000-0003-4945-839X |
| 28 | Maximilian | Inckmann | Researcher | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) | Germany | 0009-0005-2800-4833 |
| 29 | Agate | Jarmakoviča | Data Steward | Rīgas Stradiņš University (RSU) | Latvia | |
| 30 | Seonyoung | Kim | Senior Support Scientist | Washington University | United States | |
| 31 | Jens | Klump | Group Leader | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) / AuScope | Australia | |
| 32 | Piotr | Krajewski | Data Steward | Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdańsk Tech) | Poland | |
| 33 | Allyson | Lister | FAIRsharing Content & Community Lead | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 0000-0002-7702-4495 |
| 34 | Sebastian | Lobentanzer | Principal Investigator | Helmholtz Munich | Germany | |
| 35 | Carolina | Mazza | Researcher | Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) | Argentina | |
| 36 | Marina | McGale | Technical Manager | Australian Data Archive (ADA) | Australia | |
| 37 | Ethel | Mendocilla Sato | Data Steward/Student | University of Lausanne (UNIL) / École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) | Switzerland | 0000-0003-0339-3535 |
| 38 | Natalie | Meyers | AI Researcher in Residence/Research Specialist | Association of Research Libraries (ARL) / Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) / San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) | United States | |
| 39 | Natalia | Mikołajczak | Open Science Specialist, Open Science Coordinator at WUT, Data Steward | Warsaw University of Technology, Main Library | Poland | 0000-0002-6605-5368 |
| 40 | Naeem | Muhammad | Research Data Manager | KU Leuven | Belgium | |
| 41 | Hari | Nepal | Researcher | University of Porto | Portugal | 0000-0003-3078-3846 |
| 42 | Anh | Nguyet Vu | Bioinformatics Engineer | Sage Bionetworks | United States | |
| 43 | Amy | Nurnberger | Head, Data Management Services | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 0000-0002-5931-072X |
| 44 | Wolmar | Nyberg Åkerström | Bioinformatician / Data Steward | European Life Sciences Infrastructure for Biological Information (ELIXIR) Sweden / National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden (NBIS) | Sweden | |
| 45 | Ryan | O'Connor | Independent | Independent | Ireland | |
| 46 | Ugochi | Okengwu | Faculty Member / Researcher | University of Port Harcourt | Nigeria | |
| 47 | Allison | Olsen | Digital Archivist | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) | United States | |
| 48 | Monica | Palmero Fernandez | Research Practice Coordinator | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 0000-0001-5164-9115 |
| 49 | Rajeev | Pillai | Senior Project Manager | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) | United States | |
| 50 | Nadège | Poncet | Agentic AI consultant | Witivio | Switzerland / France | 0000-0002-0199-994X |
| 51 | Ronit | Purian | Researcher | Climatact | Israel | |
| 52 | Tovo | Rabemanantsoa | IT Manager | Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (INRAE) | France | 0000-0002-8362-9474 |
| 53 | Trish | Radotic | RDA Community Manager | Research Data Alliance (RDA) / Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) | Australia | |
| 54 | Leonore | Reiser | Biocuration Scientist | Phoenix Bioinformatics | United States | |
| 55 | Davide | Rizzo | Junior Professor in Landscape Agronomy | Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) | France | |
| 56 | Abiel | Roche-Lima | Professor | University of Puerto Rico System | United States | |
| 57 | Chokri | Ben Romdhane | IT Senior Analyst | Centre National Universitaire de Documentation Scientifique et Technique (CNUDST) | Tunisia | 0000-0001-5437-6706 |
| 58 | Marco | Rorro | AI Solutions Architect | EGI Foundation | Netherlands / Italy | 0009-0002-6260-1007 |
| 59 | Anna | Sackmann | Data Services Librarian | University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) | United States | 0000-0002-3852-6951 |
| 60 | Habiba | Sarhan | Model Behaviour and Responsible AI Lead | GaiaLogic AG / Technical University of Munich (TUM) | Germany | |
| 61 | Bernd | Saurugger | Researcher | Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien) | Austria | |
| 62 | Hugh | Shanahan | Professor of Open Science | Royal Holloway, University of London | United Kingdom | |
| 63 | Jonathan | Starr | Executive Director | Open Source Endowment | United States | |
| 64 | Frankie | Stevens | Director | Research Infrastructure Services | Australia | |
| 65 | Joanne | Stocks | Senior Research Fellow | University of Nottingham | United Kingdom | 0000-0002-7800-6002 |
| 66 | Veronika | Stoka | Professor | Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) | Slovenia | |
| 67 | Janine | Strandberg | Data Steward | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands | 0000-0002-0336-5035 |
| 68 | Jenifer | Tabita Ciuciu-Kiss | Data Engineer | Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) | Switzerland | |
| 69 | Annerose | Tartler-Ostrizek | Data Steward | FedOSC Belgium / Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) | Belgium | |
| 70 | Andrew | Treloar | Independent | DRI Consultant | Australia | 0000-0002-8911-3081 |
| 71 | Slava | Tykhonov | Head of AI | Committee on Data of the International Science Council (CODATA) | France | 0000-0001-9447-9830 |
| 72 | Raymond | Uzwyshyn | Director, Research and Technology | University of California, Riverside (UCR) | United States | |
| 73 | Filippo | Vasone | Data Steward | University of Bologna (Unibo) | Italy | 0009-0000-9125-8813 |
| 74 | Alex | Wade | Consultant | DataCite | United States | 0000-0002-9366-1507 |
| 75 | Benjamin | Wright-Jones | Software Engineer | Microsoft | United Kingdom | |
| 76 | Ben | Wu | Principle Consultant | NetApp | Australia | |
| 77 | Qi | Zhang | Researcher | Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS) | Japan | |
| 78 | Olga | Zubova | Independent Consultant | Independent Consultant (Standards and Policy) | Peru | |
| 79 | Carlo Maria | Zwölf | Data Infrastructure Director | Laboratory for the Study of the Universe and eXtreme phenomena (LUX), Observatoire de Paris | France | 0000-0002-5762-6747 |