A meeting introducing the FAIR Funder Implementation Study (FFIS) to international funders took place in Leiden (NL) on September 30 and October 1, 2019. This meeting focused on the challenges that funders face when assessing the quality of FAIR data stewardship plans and the levels of FAIRness of research outputs. The main objective of the event was coordination and alignment of ongoing initiatives within research funding organisations that are interested in participating in the FFIS. 

The ‘FAIR made easy’ animation which depicts the seven steps of the FAIR Funding was presented to the meeting participants in the opening session. The 1st day of the meeting included presentations from multiple stakeholders: Science Europe; EOSC; FAIR DS in the funding agencies; Data Stewardship Competence Centers; FAIR Service Providers consortium. The service providers provided demonstrations and discussions on joint plans to bring the FAIR Funding cycle to life in a sustainable and scalable manner. 

See the main presentation deck from the meeting:

The meeting participants both from the funding agencies and service providing organisations decided to use the GO FAIR IN declaration format to progress their alignment and planning of the FFIS development with the ongoing support of GFISCO-NL. 

This group also agreed to closely cooperate with the currently forming Data Stewardship Competence Centers (DSCC) IN to ensure that the needs of users are properly reflected in the FAIR Funding cycle.