As technology advances and unlocks new applications, it also encounters new challenges, such as in data curation. However, the Energy Data Exchange, a virtual library and data laboratory built to find, connect, curate, use and re-use data to advance fossil energy and environmental research and development, has solutions for these problems.

In a world where data curation tends to emphasize technology rather than people, there is a clear need for people to work through complex data curation issues. The NETL Energy Data eXchange (EDX®) gives researchers more time to perform research by solving four major data curation problems: enterprise-level curation, data governance, scalability, and discoverability.

Solving these problems meets the needs of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) stakeholders, scientists, and professionals working toward the DOE’s mission.

Enterprise-level curation places EDX® in a different space than any other system, enabling researchers to focus on research. Data storage and curation management is costly and can be challenging for individual researchers and projects. EDX® has a unique and replicable enterprise-level curation model that supports NETL’s long-term data curation strategy.

EDX® is a pathway for researchers and scientists to make data publicly available in compliance with federal guidance on data governance. EDX® is designed to support federal acts, initiatives, principles, and NETL policies in how data is managed, reported, copyrighted, and made available. EDX® ensures public data is accurate, compliant, and available through a standardized workflow that integrates compliance standards and includes federal project management approval processes. 

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) begins to impact more aspects of data processing and curation, creating a scalable system has become a challenge. To meet this challenge and unlock the potential of AI, EDX® is migrating to the multi-cloud to enable cloud compute and storage. This movement unlocks analytical and visualization tools at scale. Aspects of AI can help curate data by finding data you may not think to look for.

A data silo, where data is controlled by one department or business unit and isolated from the rest of an organization, is a problem. Discoverability is the solution, but discoverability at scale is challenging. EDX® solves public and private data accessibility needs by implementing several intuitive functions. EDX® integrates metadata standards that allow people to quickly find data products and re-use research. Metadata and integrated Digital Object Identifiers help establish data trustworthiness and improve discoverability and confidence in use of EDX’s data products.

EDX promotes collaboration and secure data sharing to researchers by providing private workspaces using role-based security. Finalized data products can seamlessly be pushed to the public side once approved for public release improving the speed of access for the public to research. EDX® is taking research products out of their silos and making them discoverable. 

NETL is DOE national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By leveraging its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.