As the leader of the project – which started in 2019, was implemented with more than twenty partners and had ten million euros of availability – DANS is extremely proud of this final verdict. “It is the icing on the cake for us. We worked on this project with a lot of passion and many DANS co-workers,” says Ingrid Dillo, FAIRsFAIR project leader and deputy director at DANS. “It gives a lot of confidence for the next project, FAIR-IMPACT,” Dillo continues.
Professional and holistic
The final verdict in the report praises the way the FAIRsFAIR project was executed. It points out the holistic and collaborative approach to all the numerous and disparate activities. The project has produced exceptional results with significant, immediate impact.
People are also enthusiastic about the extensive communication activities to reach a wider audience and the alternative versions of outputs developed, such as fact sheets, videos, webinars and social media.
Implementation of FAIR principles.
The FAIRsFAIR project was tasked with developing practical solutions for implementing the FAIR principles across the scientific data lifecycle with a focus on fostering a FAIR data culture and applying good practices. According to the reviewers, the project team was more than successful in doing this. With results such as the FAIR adoption handbook for universities, the F-UJI and FAIR-Aware tools to assess the FAIRness of data and many others, FAIRsFAIR has contributed greatly to the FAIRification of data and services in Europe.
FAIR-Impact
While many steps have been taken in recent years to make data FAIR, there is still plenty of work to be done. “FAIR-IMPACT is a new project that picks up where FAIRsFAIR left off, but also focuses on new challenges,” says Dillo, who will again take the lead as project coordinator.
For example, domain-focused European research infrastructures, such as CESSDA for the social sciences, are now part of the project and contribute specific use cases. An important use case is, such as the handling of sensitive data. FAIR-IMPACT will also broaden its focus. Dillo: “All scientific outputs must become FAIR – we are therefore now focusing in addition to data for example on FAIRness of software and documentation.”
