FAIRsFAIR

FAIRsFAIR
Name	FAIRsFAIR
Formation	2018
Type	Project / Initiative
Region	European Union

FAIRsFAIR FAIRsFAIR is a European initiative aimed at promoting the FAIR data principles across European Commission programmes, research infrastructures such as CERN, and national research organisations including Max Planck Society. The project coordinates activities among stakeholders like European Research Council, OpenAIRE, and European University Association to improve data stewardship practices in contexts related to Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, and initiatives associated with European Cloud Initiative. The initiative interfaces with projects such as EOSCpilot, Science Europe, and libraries like the British Library to support interoperability and reuse.

Overview

FAIRsFAIR was designed to operationalise the FAIR principles—originally articulated by stakeholders including Force11 and influencers from institutions like University of Oxford and Stanford University—by delivering policies, training, and technical guidance relevant to organisations such as European Commission, Council of the European Union, and research infrastructures including ESFRI and EMBL. It engaged with infrastructures and projects across the European Research Area, linking to standards bodies like W3C and registries such as ORCID and DataCite to foster machine-actionable metadata and persistent identifiers used by platforms including Zenodo, Figshare, and Dryad.

History

FAIRsFAIR commenced in 2018 within the landscape shaped by calls from entities like G7, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the European Commission for better research data management. Early collaborators included OpenAIRE, PAGES Project, and research libraries such as National Library of the Netherlands, building on precedent work from EOSCpilot and RDA outputs. Throughout its lifecycle it held workshops alongside universities such as University of Amsterdam, University of Cambridge, and Technical University of Munich and aligned efforts with funders like Wellcome Trust, European Research Council, and national agencies including UK Research and Innovation.

Objectives and Activities

FAIRsFAIR set objectives to advance FAIR-aligned policies among funders like European Research Council and institutions such as ETH Zurich, to improve infrastructure interoperability among providers such as CERN and EMBL-EBI, and to build workforce skills via training delivered with partners like CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY and University of Oxford. Activities included policy mapping with stakeholders such as Science Europe and GÉANT, development of criteria for repositories comparable to services like Dryad and Zenodo, and community engagement events co-organised with organisations like Research Data Alliance, SPARC, and LIBER.

Governance and Partners

Governance involved consortia members drawn from major European research actors including OpenAIRE, DANS, SURF, SPARC Europe, and academic institutions such as University of Amsterdam and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Funding and oversight connected to European Commission directorates and programme officers associated with Horizon 2020 and successor frameworks including Horizon Europe. Strategic partnerships extended to identifier authorities like DataCite and ORCID, metadata standards groups such as W3C and ISO, and research infrastructures like ELIXIR and CLARIN.

Projects and Services

FAIRsFAIR delivered services including policy briefs used by funders including Wellcome Trust and European Research Council; certification guidance for repositories referencing frameworks like CoreTrustSeal and registries such as re3data; and training materials adopted by universities like University of Edinburgh and KU Leuven. It produced technical outputs to assist integration with infrastructures such as EOSC and platforms like Zenodo and supported tooling interoperable with standards from W3C and persistent identifier systems managed by Handle System stakeholders including DataCite.

Impact and Evaluation

Evaluations cited uptake among funders such as Wellcome Trust and repositories listed in re3data and informed policy shifts in programmes run by European Commission and agencies like Research Council of Norway. Impact metrics referenced adoption of metadata practices used by infrastructures like EMBL-EBI and repository certification trends similar to CoreTrustSeal growth, while community assessments involved consultations with organisations including Research Data Alliance and universities such as University of Cambridge.

Criticism and Challenges

Critics from networks including Research Data Alliance and some academic libraries such as British Library noted challenges in translating FAIR conceptual guidance into domain-specific implementations for disciplines represented by infrastructures like ELIXIR and CERN and institutions including Max Planck Society. Operational hurdles involved harmonising standards across registries like re3data and identifier services such as ORCID, and addressing sustainability concerns highlighted by funders like Wellcome Trust and programme managers at the European Commission.

Category:Research data management