On the 16th of February 2023, ELIXIR-Estonia will be holding an online data management course in English: FAIR in a Nutshell. This lecture will be a short overview of the FAIR principles and is part of a bigger data management course package aimed at DMP writers and grant applicants.

In recent years, more attention has been put on what researchers do with the data they produce. Especially in Europe (think GDPR), but also everywhere else. The main idea is that when researchers use taxpayers' money, the taxpayers themselves should also have access to the results free of charge. This means that the research should be published in open-access journals, and data should be made publicly available.

Good data management helps to make the whole process of making data reusable easier. In general, you should think about how to manage your data at the beginning and during the project and know what you plan to do with it at the end of the project. However, what is “good data management” exactly is up for debate. The FAIR Principles concentrate on making your data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, so this is a good start. And let’s be honest, some of these things you probably are already doing.

In this course, we will be going over all the FAIR Principles and how they are applied in real life. This way, you will already know what to consider while writing a grant, filling out your data management plan or doing your research.