The Austrian NeuroCloud (ANC) operates under a set of clearly defined policies, documented in the ANC Handbook, that reflect the specific demands of cognitive neuroscience research data. As a domain-specific repository, the ANC tailors its data workflows, metadata models, and stewardship practices to accommodate the complexity of neurocognitive experiments, the sensitivity of human data, and the evolving expectations of reproducibility and openness.
In shaping its operations, the ANC aligns with a broad spectrum of relevant guidelines and frameworks, including:
- Community standards and guidance from the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF)
- Best practices emerging from neuroscience-specific standardization and harmonization efforts such as BIDS, HED, and Neurobagel
- The EOSC Federation Handbook
- European and national legal frameworks, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Austrian Forschungsorganisationsgesetz (FOG)
- The Austrian Open Science Policy, which promotes FAIR-compliant, domain-appropriate data infrastructures
Together, these frameworks shape how the ANC implements trustworthy, reproducible, and interoperable data stewardship, adapted to the real-world needs of researchers working with complex neurocognitive datasets.
Data organization and validation
All datasets must comply with the ANC Data Format Requirements, which mandate the use of the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) as the core organizational standard. Upon upload, automated validation checks for structural and metadata consistency with the latest specification. This ensures syntactic interoperability, prevents common formatting errors, and facilitates reuse across tools and platforms. Researchers receive structured feedback and may request support from ANC data stewards during the process.
Metadata enrichment and data reuse
To promote semantic interoperability, the ANC applies detailed metadata policies based on community standards and internal extensions. Metadata can be enriched using Hierarchical Event Descriptors (HED), and subject-level harmonization is supported through implementation of the Neurobagel Data Model. These practices ensure that data can be discovered, understood, and integrated across studies — supporting meaningful reuse over time in line with FAIR principles. Guidance for preparing reusable datasets is provided in the ANC Handbook, and ongoing metadata maintenance ensures compatibility with evolving standards. To enhance discoverability and integration, the ANC disseminates metadata across multiple channels, including public dataset-specific web pages (acting as DOI landing pages), custom data querying interface, and participant-level interoperability via federated Neurobagel node.
Curation and stewardship
A Data Stewardship Policy governs how datasets are reviewed, curated, and published. All submissions undergo quality checks by trained data stewards, who assess both data integrity and metadata accuracy. The platform uses version-controlled workflows (based on Git) to maintain full traceability and transparency of all changes across the dataset lifecycle. Evolving metadata standards are actively monitored and, where needed, changes are streamlined across all datasets.
Preservation
Long-term preservation is embedded in the ANC's operational design. Through versioning and proactive metadata maintenance, the repository ensures that datasets remain accessible and interpretable over time. The ANC operates on its own dedicated hardware infrastructure, located on University of Salzburg premises, with regular offsite and redundant backups to guarantee data durability and recovery in case of failure. Infrastructure and stewardship policies are designed to support sustainable operations and protect against data loss.
Legal compliance and licensing
Data handling in the ANC complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Austrian Forschungsorganisationsgesetz (FOG). Legal frameworks were developed during the Digital Neuroscience Initiative, in close collaboration with the Department of Civil Law of the University of Salzburg. The ANC provides clear usage terms via its Transfer and License Agreement and promotes open, non-discriminatory reuse through the custom ANC License, where compatible with privacy and institutional obligations.