In may 2026 an inspiring group of colleagues met at TIB Hannover for the initial organisational meeting of the Sustainable Chemistry Data Standards Coalition (SCDSC). This is the next concrete step on a journey that began in Cambridge, continued in Delitzsch, and built further momentum in London. After all the conversations, the framing, and the community-building of those earlier workshops, things are now getting tangible.
Plans are to launch a start-up project under the initial stewardship of the Pistoia Alliance, with CODATA providing administrative support and IUPAC acting as a core scientific leader and partner of the effort. The goal: mapping the landscape of digital standards in chemistry, including a comprehensive assessment of use cases, the stakeholders involved, and the interdependencies and interactions between standards. The project is designed to deliver both a knowledge base that is human- and machine-actionable, and the foundation for an #SCDSC that can sustainably develop, curate, and steward those standards going forward.
A heartfelt thank you to John Rumble and Derek Craston for preparing the core working documents that move this coalition from idea into active work, and to the interim Steering Committee for shaping those foundational documents alongside them. Thank you also to Christian Baber and Simon Hodson for distilling the material and focusing our discussions into concrete action items. Your preparation made all the difference.
Follow-up
We will soon publish a Call for Participation, both for contributing to the project and for joining the activities of the coalition itself. Project kickoff is planned for Q4 2026.
A final thank you to all other colleagues I couldn’t mentioned but made many valuable contributions to the process developing the coalition.
If you care about the future of chemistry data standards, stay tuned. There will be a meaningful way for you to get involved.
