Table 1.

A summary of key principles for DRI futures for environmental science

#	Principle	Description
1	collaborative and integrative	DRI should support collaboration between different stakeholders in environmental science. This should be underpinned by DRI innovations that can integrate underlying scientific assets and insights, offering a systemic view of our global environment and its changing nature.
2	end-to-end FAIRification	DRI should not only have FAIR data for open science, but also FAIR assets (e.g., models, methods, sensor infrastructure, workflows, tools) throughout the entire research life cycle from data collection to decision making. Technical and cultural barriers to the FAIRification of assets should be uncovered and overcome.
3	stakeholder centric	DRI should be designed to meet the needs of stakeholders in environmental science, including the range of scientists and decision-makers involved in the research. This includes advancing stakeholder-focused DRI designs, alongside offering DRI support and upskilling activities where necessary.
4	platform independent	DRI should be architecturally designed to be platform independent to allow research assets and activities to be ported from one technical infrastructure to another. This will ensure the DRI is flexible and extensible in adapting to new digital innovations over time.
5	scalable	DRI should scale to the compute needs necessary for the science, supporting complex data processing, methods and models on local machines, shared high performance computing or hybrid cloud facilities. This should support multiple and heterogeneous datasets in varying sizes and combinations for integrative science to be achievable.
6	cyber secure	It is important that DRI can offer sufficient levels of cyber security including protecting against cyber-attacks on the underlying infrastructure. These security and privacy concerns must be balanced against the desires to promote open, transparent, and accessible science.
7	inclusive	DRI should allow any stakeholder—regardless of their background, discipline, or expertise—to benefit equally from using DRI for their environmental science research or general enquiries. Diversity should be dutifully considered and celebrated in meeting stakeholder needs to support international environmental science and collaborations.
8	open, transparent, and trustworthy	Promoting openness and transparency in environmental science should be at the heart of DRI innovation, allowing all stakeholders to see the assets used and decisions made in the entire research life cycle. Any uncertainty in the science should be clear, growing trust amongst stakeholders in the science insights, outputs, and resultant actions.
9	sustainable	DRI should be financially sustainable and maintainable long-term and environmentally sustainable in its design. Environmental impacts from DRI’s creation, use, and disposal should be transparent and minimized by responsible innovation, with environmental gains from the science outweighing DRI’s environmental costs.

Note that we do not see these DRI principles as standalone; they overlap, can be combined in different ways, and will inevitably change or be added to overtime as the needs of environmental science evolve.