FAIRsFAIR initiative to develop European research infrastructure

A new initiative will develop an overall knowledge infrastructure for academic quality data management based on the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles.

The FAIRsFAIR project (Fostering FAIR Data Practices in Europe) involves 22 partners in eight EU member states, including the UK Data Archive. It aims to increase the production and use of data that are FAIR in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

FAIRsFAIR will help to develop global standards for FAIR certification of repositories and the data within them, contributing to policies and practices that will turn the EOSC programme into a functioning infrastructure.

Ingrid Dillo, the FAIRsFAIR Project Coordinator at Data Archiving and Networked Services in Amsterdam, said, “Our aim is to create a FAIR data hub. We need to become the FAIR data hub in Europe, for people to be trained, to be informed, to get help, to get advice on making their data FAIR – and that goes for everyone: researchers, graduate students, research supporters, but also policy makers and funders. I hope we will become the central focal FAIR point for the European Open Science Cloud.”

The project will run until March 2022, and has six main objectives:

  • improve interoperability of FAIR resources
  • increase the production and the use of FAIR data in policy and practice
  • develop a capability maturity model towards FAIR certification
  • build a network of Trusted Digital Repositories
  • set up a competence centre for all communities
  • embed FAIR data education in university programmes.

The UK Data Archive will support the delivery of FAIR Trusted Digital repositories by developing a maturity model, which will include alignment with CoreTrustSeal requirements.

Call for experts

FAIRsFAIR’s first step has been to open a call for 15 experts who will champion the project in different scientific communities and work together to shape policies which promote the adoption of FAIR principles. Anyone who would like to be one of these champions (or recommend someone) should email EGFC-call@fairsfair.eu.

There will be a workshop on ‘Services to Support FAIR Data’ in Porto, Portugal, on 17 September 2019.

The project has been funded by the European Commission’s H2020-INFRAEOSC-2018-2020 programme.

Find out more about FAIR

You can also find out more about FAIR principles at the NBN Conference, as one of the Network Knowledge Exchange sessions is “FAIR Data Principles – improving the reusability of NBN data holdings”.

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