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

The work of data research infrastructure operators is poorly understood, yet the services they provide are used by millions of scientists across the planet. 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. 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, and a table of policy implications. 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.