To enhance FAIR data policies, WP3 will work collaboratively with the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Clusters, European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) 5 projects and the EOSC Secretariat. An analysis of data policies at various levels (nation, funder, organisation) will be carried out to identify elements that support or hinder FAIR data practice. The analysis report will be published as a deliverable in November 2019 [D3.1] and updated towards the end of the project [D3.8].
Based on the results of the analysis, WP3 will work with stakeholders to provide recommendations on how policies might be enhanced by providing coherent statements on the responsibilities and actions needed to enable FAIR data. The draft recommendations will be shared for comment with related projects and initiatives specifically during a dedicated workshop in December 2019. Based on the feedback, a set of revised recommendations will be published in February 2020 [D3.3] and efforts will then focus on encouraging take up of the recommendations at national, funder and organisational level. This work aims to reduce conflicting requirements across stakeholders, making the landscape easier to navigate and easing adoption.
To embed FAIR data practice in research culture, WP3 will work with the ESFRI Clusters to carry out an analysis of data practice within a selection of research disciplines and research data repositories. A report will be published as a deliverable in November 2019 [D3.2] and updated towards the end of the project [D3.8]. Based on the results of the practice landscape analysis, a series of recommendations will be produced outlining how practice might be changed to support greater production and use of FAIR data. This report will be released in May 2020 [D3.4].
Regarding the transition to FAIR data repositories and promoting data stewardship, WP3 will work to determine what is needed to enable data repositories and service providers to support FAIR data and develop a suitable support programme to help them transition toward FAIR-compliant certifiable status. A key objective for this activity is to promote active data stewardship to ensure that data can be made FAIR now and that FAIRness can be sustained over time. A report describing the transition support programme for repositories will be produced in August 2020 [D3.5].
The data discovery and reusability aspects of FAIR will be addressed by integrating metadata through crosswalks and interconnected catalogues. A proposal for integrating metadata catalogues to support cross-disciplinary FAIR uptake will be released in October 2020 [D3.7] and will be trialled with selected repositories. A report on the integration of the selected metadata catalogues will be published in August 2021.