GO FAIR Newsletter: July-September 2022

Editorial

Dear GO FAIR community,

With the vacation period approaching for many of you, we thought it timely to share updates in relation to the previously announced week on FAIR organised 24 – 28 October 2022 in Leiden.
The week features two closely related events: the 2nd FAIR Convergence Symposium (24-26 October) and the 1st International Conference on FAIR Digital Objects (26-28 October). The two associated events will explore the contention that the FAIR principles, and their application through FAIR Digital Objects, are important steps to maximise the machine-actionability of data and other information.

The co-organisers of the 2nd FAIR Convergence Symposium, CODATA and GO FAIR, have been discussing the ideal format for the Symposium, in particular considering lessons learned from the International Data Week 2022 held just last week and that travel (especially overseas) still appears to be problematic for many colleagues. Therefore, the two organisations agreed to concentrate their efforts and fill the first part of that week with smaller strategic and working meetings to drive convergence on FAIR, rather than a large Symposium. Most of the meetings will be organised as hybrid events, allowing for both in-person and online participation.
The meetings planned by GO FAIR include selected wheel meetings introducing and discussing FAIR enabling resources of the GO FAIR INs and also a meeting of the GO FAIR Directors of the National Support Offices. From the CODATA side, the activities of the case studies under the WorldFAIR project, and in particular the outcomes of their FAIR Implementation Profiles workshops, will be featured. It is also the intention of CODATA to bring together the members of the Open Science Cloud Executives Roundtable (OSCER) for an in-person meeting.

Further information and invitations for the events organised by GO FAIR are forthcoming. We also encourage the INs to engage with the FDOF IN developments and join the 1st FDO Conference.

All the best,
Christine Kirkpatrick, Director GO FAIR US & Barend Mons, Scientific Director GO FAIR Foundation
On behalf of the GO FAIR Offices

Did you know… GO Read

In this section you will learn about Implementation Networks that have recently acquired “active” status, recent IN activities and opportunities. This way, we ensure that you always stay on top of things happening in the GO FAIR family.

Reports from internal events

• Read the summary of the GO Unite! spring workshop! On 28 April 2022, GO Unite!, the German chapter of the Data Stewardship Competence Centers IN (DSCC), gathered representatives from the German RDM community to work on existing and new topics in several breakout sessions. The contents of GO Unite! are provided by the community and are defined and processed beyond formal project structures. Within this low-threshold cooperation culture, pragmatic solutions for current RDM issues are developed.
• The BiodiFAIRse IN attended the launch of the project GAIA Data on 12 April 2022 at the Amphitheater Verniquet at the National Museum of Natural History. The French Biodiversity Data Hub (Pôle National de Données de Biodiversité aka PNDB) together with two other research infrastructures, Data Terra and Climeri are involved in GAIA Data. The project aims at developing a global FAIR system for accessing data, products and services to observe, understand and predict in an integrated manner the history, functioning and evolution of the Earth system subject to global changes. More (information will be available in English soon)

Photos: CC-By Olivier Norvez

Outputs

• Congratulations to the Polish Chapter of the DSCC IN that won the ‘Irmgard Lankenau Poster Prize’ at the 42nd Annual Conference of the International Association of University Libraries. The poster introduces the mission, communication tools and current activities of the Polish Chapter.
• Check out the presentation of GO Unite! (in German) at the coffee lecture at the University of Hildesheim on 18 May 2022.
• Watch the recording of the FAIRPoints webinar on “Things you need to know about Data Access Statements” on 21 April 2022 featuring Juliane Schneider and Chris Erdmann from GO FAIR US.
• The French Biodiversity Data Hub (Pôle National de Données de Biodiversité aka PNDB):
  • in collaboration with the international network DataOne, can now publish FAIR assessment reports (here is an example) in its biodiversity (meta)data catalog;
  • presented Galaxy for Ecology, a web platform to process, analyse and visualise biodiversity data, at the Galaxy training meeting at Smörgåsbord from 14 to 18 March. There, BiodiFAIRse IN coordinator and representatives Yvan Le Bras (scientific and technical coordinator of the PNDB), Coline Royax (PhD student in ecoinformatics and data scientist of the PNDB), and Olivier Norvez (animation coordinator) proposed three online tutorials to explore tools developed by PNDB.
• Watch a series of three videos about data papers co-produced by the CO-OPERAS IN, EOSC Pillar and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). French researchers, editors and research engineers discuss the scope of data papers, the tools, the ecosystem of which they are a part, and more.
• Read the new blog post on “The Road to FAIR” published by the CO-OPERAS IN that focuses on the relationship between data papers and FAIR Principles.
• VODAN-Africa:
  • decided on 12 April 2022 that the VODAN-Africa Health System is being deployed across 88 health facilities in 8 African countries.
  • hosted a hybrid event on 20 April 2022 in Leiden (The Netherlands) to display the innovations of African scientists through VODAN-Africa together with Kampala International University, Leiden University Medical Center, Network Globalization, Accessibility, Innovation and Care, Stanford University Center for Expanded Data Annotation and Retrieval, and San Diego Supercomputing Center. This event was co-moderated Dr Mirjam van Reisen, Global Coordinator of VODAN-Africa and GO FAIR US’ Christine Kirkpatrick. Full article, event recording and slides are available.
  • wins most inspiring presentation during the Global Health Symposium. VODAN-Africa continues to show how data can be born FAIR and embodies the 3-point FAIRification process pioneered by GO FAIR.

Opportunities

• The call for abstracts for the 1st International Conference on FAIR Digital Objects (26-28 October 2022) is open! Submit your abstract by 10 July 2022!
• The 1st Workshop on Ontologies for FAIR and FAIR Ontologies will take place on 13 September 2022. Submit your paper by 27 June 2022!
• Apply by 11 July 2022 for the EOSC Future grant for RDA cross-disciplinary adoption in support of EOSC!
• Don’t miss out: Join the Netherlands National Open Science Festival on 01 September 2022!

Interesting reads by our INs

• The FAIRsharing Community Curation Programme launches with an award from the RDA/EOSC-Future Ambassadorship programme. Dr. Allyson Lister, FAIRsharing Content and Community Coordinator, has received one of the first RDA/EOSC-Future Domain Ambassador awards. Allyson will use these funds to launch the FAIRsharing Community Curation Programme. Read on how you can be part of and get credited for contributing to the enrichment of the knowledge graphs for standards, databases and policies and the creation of educational material.
• In recent years, there has been a greater push for data sets to be made openly available and to be managed using the FAIR principles (ensuring data are findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable). This editorial piece from Nature calls for a rethink in how data citations vs. publication authorship is factored into tenure and promotion so those sharing data receive appropriate credit commensurate with the new research their data enables.

National offices news

• GO FAIR Austria reports:
  • Teaching RDM topics and looking for materials? Check out this compilation of OER – all curated and checked for actuality.
  • Did you know that the Open Source Code of the machine-actionable DMP tool DAMAP is published under an MIT license?
  • The University of Vienna, one of the partners of FAIR Data Austria, opened registration for a new, hybrid Data Steward training programme starting in October 2022.
  • On 23 May 2022 the federal ministry of Austria, universities and funding organizations met for a symposium of the Research Data Cluster, which was dedicated to the topic “the future of research (data) management”. Read a short summary and have a look at the presentations!
  • Did you miss the webinar on “FAIR for Sensitive Data” on 23 March 2022? Materials and recordings are now available.
  • Check out the materials and exercises of the TrainRDM Open Science train-the-trainer week that was held at TU Wien, Vienna, from 30 May to 3 June 2022!
• GO FAIR Brazil shares:
  • GO FAIR Agro Brazil Network, the thematic network dedicated to promoting the governance and management of Brazilian agricultural data, was officially launched on 12 April 2022.
• GO FAIR Denmark informs:
  • GO FAIR Denmark was officially launched on 13 June 2022. Check out the Danish website!
  • Read this FAIRsFAIR implementation story on defining data interoperability frameworks that resulted from an interview with Rene Belsø, Anders Sparre Conrad and Hannah Mihail from GO FAIR Denmark.
• GO FAIR US reports:
  • The GO FAIR US June newsletter is now available.
  • In July 2021, Oak Ridge National Laboratory hosted the second annual Computational and Autonomous Workflows workshop, which assembled 62 ORNL scientists and engineers to discuss how FAIR applies to computational and autonomous workflows. Have a look at the recently released report that explores FAIR and Workflows!
  • GO FAIR welcomes the new ambassadors from GO FAIR US who will liaise with Geoscience and Materials Science INs, bringing their domain and research data management expertise to the benefit of the community. Nancy Hoebelheinrick is a principal at the consultancy KnowledgeMotifs, LLC, and was previously at Stanford. Nancy has been active most recently in a number of information and educational technology efforts including those of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), the Research Data Alliance’s Education and Training on handling of research data Interest Group (ETHRD IG), and EarthCube. Dr. Eva Campos currently leads CampoStella R+C, is the founder of Laboratory for Matter Dynamics, and is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, having previously worked at the National Science Foundation. Eva actively monitors political, economic, social, scientific and other significant developments in the U.S. and internationally to develop recommendations on science policy and to bring the right people together at the right time to create change.

GO Meet

This section gives you an overview of conferences and workshops where you can meet up (virtually) with fellow GO FAIR members if you happen to attend the same event or are in the same town. In order for this category to work we do need your help! Please drop us a line at go-fair@zbw.eu and tell us where you can be met in the future.

External events

Meet INs

• 08 July 2022, virtual: Meet BiodiFAIRse IN representatives at the official launch of Research Data Gouv.

Meet GFISCO

• 20 July 2022, Pittsburgh (USA): Meet GO FAIR US’s Nancy Hoebelheinreich at the ESIP session Data Management Training Clearinghouse.
• 25-29 July 2022 (virtual): Meet colleagues from the GO FAIR US office at the FSCI2022 Online. This year’s theme is “Collaboration for Action: Sharing Knowledge Across Boundaries”. 
• 13 September 2022, Vienna (Austria): Say hi to Luiz at the 1st Workshop on Ontologies for FAIR and FAIR Ontologies.

INternal events

Meet INs & GFISCO

• 24-26 October 2022, Leiden (The Netherlands): Say hello to GO FAIR IN representatives and GO FAIR office team members at the 2nd FAIR Convergence Symposium.
• 26-28 October 2022, Leiden (The Netherlands): Meet IN representatives of the FDO Forum at their 1st International FDO Conference. Note that the call for abstracts closes on 10 July.

People of GO FAIR

In this section we would like to introduce you to members of our GO FAIR family. In each newsletter we will provide you with a short profile of GO FAIR members.

IN representatives

Meet the coordinators of the Marine Data Centres IN: Michèle Fichaut and Dick Schaap

Michèle Fichaut is a data manager specialised in Oceanographic data management at IFREMER/SISMER, the French NODC. Responsible for the national physical and chemical oceanographic database at SISMER from 1993 to 2011, she developed the data flow from the scientific laboratories to the NODC and the data distribution to a wide public. She is specialised in ORACLE RDBMS and is experienced in data management for European projects (SeaDataNet, EMODnet chemistry, EMODnet Ingestion, EMOD-PACE, Sea-Search, MEDAR/MEDATLAS, MTPII/MATER, etc). She has been the coordinator of the FP7 SeaDataNet II and H2020 SeaDataCloud projects (from 2011 to 2021) for the development of the SeaDataNet Research infrastructure and its link to the EOSC, in which access to FAIR data (even before the FAIRness movement existed) have always been a focus. Michèle was deeply involved in the specification of the tools (MIKADO, NEMO, Formats converters, vocabulary services) and the standards ISO-19115 definition of the SeaDataNet catalogues as well as the standard data transport formats defined in the frame of SeaDataNet. She is the French representative at IOC/IODE.

Dick Schaap started as Coastal Engineer at Rijkswaterstaat North Sea Directorate, followed by Managing Director MARIS, a spin-off company improving access to marine data. He has extensive experience in initiating and leading EU projects on marine data management infrastructures. As technical coordinator of SeaDataNet, the Pan-European network of NODCs, he has major involvement in the conception and roll-out of EMODnet as a leading European infrastructure for marine data products. Currently, he is technical coordinator of the H2020 Blue-Cloud project, next to involvement in several other EU projects.

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