The road to success: drawing parallels between 'road' and 'research data' infrastructures to foster understanding between service providers, funders and policymakers

<ns5:p> <ns5:bold>Background:</ns5:bold> <ns5:italic/> The work of data research infrastructure operators is poorly understood, yet the services they provide are used by millions of scientists across the planet. </ns5:p> <ns5:p> <ns5:bold>Policy and implications:</ns5:bold> As the data services and the underlying infrastructure are typically funded through the public purse, it is essential that policymakers, research funders, experts reviewing funding proposals, and possibly even end-users are equipped with a good understanding of the daily tasks of service providers. </ns5:p> <ns5:p> <ns5:bold>Recommendations:</ns5:bold> We suggest drawing parallels between research data infrastructure and road infrastructure. To trigger the imagination and foster understanding, this policy brief contains a table of corresponding aspects of the two classes of infrastructure. </ns5:p> <ns5:p> <ns5:bold>Conclusions:</ns5:bold> Just as economists and specialist evaluators are typically brought in to inform policies and funding decisions for road infrastructure, we encourage this to also be done for research infrastructures </ns5:p>