This will be supported by knowledge bases of guidelines and information on FAIR data practises tailored to specific communities, which will grow throughout the project and feed into each other.
The Competence Centre thus serves as a nexus between the FAIRsFAIR project and the communities, encouraging a 2-way communication to represent the community to solution providers. It will then have the opportunity to identify synergies across communities and promote harmonisation and coordination of efforts across communities, building on the progress of others.
A key dimension of the work of the Competence Centre is the delivery of training. FAIRsFAIR project is building on the successful CODATA/Research Data Alliance schools model, which provides early career researchers with foundational data science skills in an established and validated two-week curriculum. The WP6 team will roll out this model across Europe, propagating the skills by “training the trainers”, and supplying francised modules which can be tailored for a particular community . By working with WP7, the WP6 team will explore how this could be included as an element in core university provision and the potential for formal accreditation.
Every research community has its own particular opportunities and barriers for FAIR data uptake and compliance. Established practices, variant data forms and external requirements mean that different domains start from different places in their move to increasing the FAIRness of data. Thus activities promoting and supporting FAIR data uptake must be adapted to each domain. Engagement with communities is therefore an essential first step towards creating and provisioning of competence centres in an efficient and effective way.