Ryan O’Connor, DCC
blog

In March 2021, the second of the FAIRsFAIR National Roadshow series was held in Ireland, with this virtual event hosted alongside the Irish National Open Research Forum (NORF) Working Group on FAIR Data. The event featured presentations from FAIRsFAIR on supporting FAIR data through policy enhancement and professionalising data stewardship. A recording of the session and the slides used are available on the dedicated page.

The event was the first in NORF’s ‘Open Research in Ireland’ series and was an opportunity for NORF to open for public comment and feedback their National Open Research Landscape Report. This report had been prepared by NORF members in order to summarise progress and challenges across the five strategic areas outlined in the National Framework on the Transition to an Open Research Environment (NORF, 2019), launched by the Government of Ireland in July 2019. One of these five strategic areas was ‘Enabling FAIR research data’, with this comprising one of the sections of the report.

Though the National Open Research Landscape Report was open to response from anyone, FAIRsFAIR took the opportunity to provide a coordinated response to the Enabling FAIR Research Data section. Responses were sought from colleagues contributing to project’s work package on FAIR Data Policy and Practice, to then be collated and provided to NORF (FAIRsFAIR colleagues were also free to contribute to any other sections of the report as individuals).

The Enabling FAIR Research Data section was divided into subsections on the Irish national landscape, progress toward the National Framework recommendations, key challenges and gaps, and examples of good practice. FAIRsFAIR colleagues provided responses to each of these sections, with some detailed input provided to the parts of the section describing existing RDM policies in Ireland, the alignment of these policies at European and international level, national requirements on data management plans, and the RDM skills and training landscape with respect to the FAIR principles.

The National Open Research Landscape Report is now closed for comment, with NORF currently working on incorporating the feedback they received into a revised version. Though no date has been issued for its release, you can keep an eye on the NORF website and Twitter page for updates.

Further FAIRsFAIR National Roadshows are also planned in the coming months with recordings of the previous events all available on the FAIRsFAIR website here