GO FAIR

GO FAIR
Name	GO FAIR
Formation	2016
Type	Initiative
Headquarters	Leiden
Region served	International

GO FAIR GO FAIR is an international initiative promoting open, interoperable, and reusable research data systems through a coalition of European and global stakeholders. It builds on collaborations among national research agencies, supranational bodies, academic institutions, and industry partners to advance data stewardship aligned with FAIR principles. The initiative engages with funders, publishers, infrastructures, and consortia to operationalize data sharing standards across disciplines and sectors.

History

The initiative emerged from discussions involving European Commission policy-makers, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development delegates, representatives from National Institutes of Health, and leaders of the Research Data Alliance and CODATA. Early proponents included directors from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, executives from CERN, and administrators at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. The program's development was influenced by prior efforts such as the Human Genome Project, the Large Hadron Collider collaborations, and initiatives like the OpenAIRE project and the Horizon 2020 programme. Key milestones involved memoranda and declarations between the G7 science ministers, the European Union, and national funding agencies. Workshops and pilot projects were hosted at venues including Leiden University, Max Planck Society institutes, and Wellcome Trust conferences.

Principles and Objectives

The initiative centers on implementing the FAIR data principles originally articulated by members associated with GoFAIR founders? (Note: cannot link the initiative itself) and advocates for standards promoted by organizations like the International Council for Science and the World Data System. Objectives include enabling interoperability across repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, and domain repositories like GenBank and Protein Data Bank. It seeks alignment with infrastructure efforts exemplified by ELIXIR, EUDAT, and the European Open Science Cloud, and with metadata standards developed by groups including W3C and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. The program emphasizes machine-actionable metadata, persistent identifiers from registries like DataCite and ORCID, and semantic technologies used by projects from the Semantic Web community.

Governance and Organizations

Governance has involved national research councils such as the German Research Foundation, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the Swedish Research Council, and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Partnerships include the European Commission DG Research, international organizations like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and philanthropic entities exemplified by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Operational coordination has drawn on expertise from institutions including Leiden University, DANS Kings (Data Archiving and Networked Services), SURF, and technology vendors such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Research collaborating through consortia like the Global Research Council.

Implementation and Initiatives

Implementation pathways have ranged from national demonstration projects funded by agencies such as the UK Research and Innovation and the Dutch Research Council to domain pilots in genomics with groups from European Bioinformatics Institute and clinical data efforts aligned with World Health Organization standards. Technical activities engage communities behind tools like FAIRsharing, the RDA/FORCE11 working groups, and registries from CrossRef and DataCite. Initiatives include training programs with universities including University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Karolinska Institutet; interoperability tests involving W3C validators; and integration pilots with infrastructures such as OpenAIRE, EOSC-hub, and GEANT. Collaborative workshops have included participants from Nature Research, Elsevier, and Springer Nature editorial teams to encourage publisher alignment.

Adoption and Impact

Adoption has been visible in policy uptake by funders such as the European Research Council, mandates from the National Institutes of Health, and institutional policies at universities like Utrecht University and University of Amsterdam. The initiative influenced the design of portal services including CORD-19 aggregations and data management plan templates used by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Impact metrics reference increases in repository interoperability for services like Zenodo and domain archives including ArrayExpress. Collaborations with consortia such as ELIXIR and EUDAT contributed to shared toolkits and best-practice guides cited by agencies including the OECD and the G20 science policy fora.

Criticism and Challenges

Critics from academic bodies including representatives at University of California and groups within the Association of American Universities have raised concerns about resource burdens, equity between institutions like Harvard University and smaller regional universities, and the sustainability of infrastructure reliant on commercial providers such as Google and Amazon. Legal and ethical challenges intersect with frameworks like the General Data Protection Regulation and standards debated at the Council of Europe. Technical hurdles persist in harmonizing ontologies from the Open Biomedical Ontologies and metadata schemas from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and ensuring long-term funding models discussed in forums like the International Science Council.

Category:Science and technology