The Research Data Alliance (RDA) held its 7th Plenary Meeting on 1–3 March 2016 in Tokyo, Japan. Located on the doorstep of the World Data System – International Programme Office (WDS-IPO), ICSU-WDS was strongly involved in activities at the Plenary, organizing and contributing to several key events.

The Meeting was preceded by two side events:

• Open Symposium: Data-driven Science—The trigger of Scientific development organized by JST, which included a presentation by Dr Yasuhiro Murayama titled Open Science works with ICSU World Data System, International Enterprise of Long Term Data Preservation.
• Publishing Data: Adoption and Implementation organized by the WDS-IPO on behalf of the WDS–RDA Publishing Data Interest Group, in cooperation with the International Association of STM Publishers and the US National Information Standards Organization. 

During the Plenary Meeting, the joint RDA–WDS Publishing Data Working Groups on Workflows, Bibliometrics, and Data–Literature Interlinking Services, as well as the Cost Recovery for Data Centres Interest Group presented final group outputs, and their adoption. The DSA–WDS Partnership WG also showcased its deliverables—the Catalogue of Common Requirements and the Common Procedures—that will soon become RDA Recommendations. 

On the day proceeding the Meeting, WDS jointly organized a further side event entitled Data Perspective beyond Alliances. Of particular interest, was a session that highlighted two projects under the umbrella of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – Global Science Forum dealing with both International Coordination and Business Models for Data Infrastructure. ICSU-WDS and the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology are playing central roles in these two initiatives.