Educators:
Nils Hoffmann (FZ Jülich / de.NBI / ELIXIR-DE)

Date:
16. Sept. 2024

Location:
Turku - ECCB 2024

Contents:
The FAIR principles were established in 2016 and have seen widespread adoption across the life sciences, being seen as a set of guidelines to promote good data management and stewardship. However, despite wide adoption of the principles themselves, practical details on how to implement the principles to improve FAIR levels are often too generic and lack the level of domain-specificity that facilitates actual execution of practical steps towards achieving real value-added FAIRified data. We have developed a practical and systematic framework for data FAIRification, which is being further refined through the ELIXIR Interoperability Platform programme. Our approach consists of applying a set of generalised processes that can be adopted, in a domain-agnostic manner, by data-generating projects, as well as the application of a FAIR maturity model, establishing the current state and desired target state of a dataset. These data states are systematically defined using our process, informed by practical domain-specific requirements. In this workshop, and aligned with the ELIXIR Interoperability programme of work, we will target ELIXIR communities to improve the FAIRness state of their research outputs. Participants will learn how to assess their own level of FAIRness against the FAIR principles and how to practically and easily apply FAIRplus methodology and tools to improve their research.

In this workshop, we will present a retrospective analysis of FAIRification in an AMR (Anti-microbial resistance) context, as well as one in the metabolomics’ domain where participants can follow along in the practical work. It should be noted that the generic approach used is widely applicable across domains, and participants from other non-ELIXIR and non-Life Sciences communities are equally welcome.

Schedule:

13:00-13:20 Part 1: General Introductions & Roundtable (20 mins)

13:20-13:35 Use case presentation (Tooba)

13:35-13:50 Introductions to FAIRplus FAIRification process and tools, DSM introduction (10 mins)

13:50-14:00 Group formation for practical

14:00-14:30 Practical work (parallel groups) – establish FAIRification goals

14:30-15:00 Coffee

15:00-15:30 Practical work (parallel groups) – FAIR maturity assessments

15:30-16:00 Practical work (parallel groups) – Design FAIR implementations

16:00- Soft close (closing remarks/summary)

Learning goals:
This workshop will equip participants with a systematic, practical and easy to adopt approach to implementing the FAIR principles in research projects at any scale. The approach has been validated through a wide range of real-world applications across disciplines, together with industry partners. While the workshop will showcase worked examples from ELIXIR’s metabolomics community, the learnings will easily translate to other data types and methodologies. The purpose of the FAIR principles and overall aims of this workshop is to enable practical, effective and scalable data sharing practices.

Prerequisites:
While this workshop is nominally designed for ELIXIR communities, it is open to all ECCB2024 participants. It is equally relevant to bioinformatics experts, researchers, and data management professionals with an interest in fostering effective and scalable data sharing practices.

Keywords:
FAIR

Tools:
None