1st open call for expert support (Route 1)

For those just getting started on their FAIR-enabling journeys, FAIR-IMPACT provides dedicated guidance and one-to-one support to successful applicants from our three key stakeholder groups to self-assess their current capabilities and to develop FAIR implementation action plans: National Levels Initiatives, Research Performing Organisations, Repositories and Data Service Providers.

Successful applicants from each of the three stakeholder groups will work over a period of nine months with FAIR-IMPACT mentors and external experts to learn how to support the uptake of FAIR-enabling practices. This will include participation in a series of virtual workshops based on the FAIR Implementation Framework, assessed homework and one-to-one support. This call is suitable for those who are just getting started with supporting the FAIR Principles or are less advances on their FAIR-enabling journey.

Successful applicants will receive one-to-one support with dedicated mentors (financial support is not provided for this specific programme). This first open call for Route 1 support was open for applications between 30th August and 1st November 2023.

Details of the support programmes:

1. Support Programme for National Level Initiatives

 

Participation in this support programme will help national organisations and researchers to better understand the drivers for becoming more FAIR-enabling, to assess their current FAIR-enabling capabilities and develop plans for improvement, and to ensure that they have an effective engagement strategy in place to facilitate uptake at the national level.

This support program is open to all but especially dedicated to organisations working at a national level and researchers to build adoption of FAIR practices. National initiatives and mandated organisations are both targets and providers of the webinars.

The support programme will begin in January 2024 as a series of virtual workshops where participants will be introduced to key concepts that can support their journey toward becoming FAIR-enabling. As part of the programme, participants will carry out a supported self-assessment of their current capabilities and develop action plans to improve one or more areas. Participants will receive one-to-one support from FAIR-IMPACT over a period of nine months as they implement their action plans. A series of curated webinars will showcase specific tools and approaches that may help to implement FAIR in a practical sense.

Enabling knowledge exchange is a key objective of the support programme and there will be two workshops held in month six and month nine where participants will share their experiences with peers in the support programme. An exit interview will result in a co-produced FAIR Implementation Story that will be published in our Zenodo community and made available to help to share the experiences with the wider community.

This call was open for applications between 30th August and 1st November 2023.

 

Successful applicants to the National Level Support Programme:

1. Nene Barry, Luxembourg National Data Service
2. Chokri Ben Romdhane, CNUDST
3. Oscar Sanchez, Dialnet Foundation
4. Joanne Yeomans, TDCC Natural & Engineering Sciences

 

Support programme for National Level Initiatives
Virtual workshops	Time	Date of Workshop
Workshop 1: FAIR national plan in Germany and national initiatives to support FAIR in Romania	14-16 CET	1st February 2024
Workshop 2: Engaging researchers with FAIR-ness	10-12 CET	2nd February 2024
Workshop 3: Open Access publishing in FAIR action plans	10-12 CET	6th February 2024
Workshop 4: Building FAIR skills at a national level	11-13 CET	27th February 2024
During March, participants will work independently to carry out self-assessments and to develop draft action and engagement plans. One-to-one periodic support from FAIR-IMPACT via email or zoom.
Workshop 5: French Data Management Clusters	10-12 CET	4th April 2024
During May, participants will work independently to develop their draft action and engagement plans. One-to-one periodic support from FAIR-IMPACT via email or zoom.
Workshop 6: Assessing national current FAIR-enabling capabilities	TBC	14 May  2024
During June/July/August, participants will work independently to implement action and engagement plans. One-to-one periodic support from FAIR-IMPACT via email or zoom.
Workshop 7 and 8: Peer knowledge exchange workshop
Exit interviews will be carried out in October and will be the basis of a co-produced FAIR Implementation Story summarising the key actions and lessons learned.
Follow-up questionnaire and/or interview with participants 6 months after the support programme wraps up to see what progress has been made. (March/April 2025)

2. Support Programme for Research Performing Organisations

 

Participation in this support programme will help research performing organisations to better understand the drivers for becoming more FAIR-enabling, to assess their current FAIR-enabling capacity and develop plans for improvement, and to ensure that they have an effective engagement strategy in place to facilitate uptake across the organisation. The structure of the programme is based around the FAIR Implementation Framework stages. 

The support programme will begin in January 2024 as a series of ten virtual workshops where participants will be introduced to key concepts that can support their journey toward becoming more FAIR-enabling. As part of the programme, participants will carry out a supported self-assessment of their current capabilities and develop action plans to improve one or more areas.

Successful applicants will receive:

• a review of their research data policy and recommendations from their FAIR-IMPACT mentors on how to make it more FAIR-enabling. If they do not yet have a research data policy, support will be provided from FAIR-IMPACT mentors to start developing one.
• support form their mentors to plan and deliver one local workshop bringing together different stakeholders across their organisation to self-assess current FAIR-enabling capabilities.
• one-to-one support from FAIR-IMPACT mentors to develop their actions plans and define their engagement strategies.

 

 

Enabling knowledge exchange is a key objective of the support programme and there will be two dedicated workshops where participants will share their experiences with peers during the support programme.

An exit interview will result in a co-produced FAIR Implementation Story that will be published in our Zenodo community and made available to help to share the experiences with the wider community. These stories will be added to a collection that was initiated as part of the FAIRsFAIR project. 

This call was open for applications between 30th August and 1st November 2023

Successful applicants to the Research Performing Organistions Support Programe:

1. Dario Basset, UNIMI
2. Brandusa Bitel, Carol Davila, University of Medicine and Pharmacy
3. Ieva Cesevičiūtė, Kaunas University of Technology
4. Natalie Dallat, Ulster University
5. Petra Dedicova, Brno University of Technology
6. Patricia Martínez Galisteo, Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of Valencia Region, FISABIO
7. Bianca Gualandi, University of Bologna
8. John Hyland, Teagasc
9. Emilia Jarochowska, Utrecht University
10. Liise Lehtsalu, Eurac Research
11. Tanja Lindholm, University of Helsinki
12. Bora Lushaj, Erasmus University Rotterdam
13. Sophie Meeus, Meise Botanic Garden
14. Laura Niemi, University of Turku
15. Irena Njezic, Torlak Institute of virology vaccines and sera
16. Michael O'Connor, Queen's University Belfast
17. Linda Ohrtmann, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg
18. Lohitzune Solabarrieta Odriozola, AZTI
19. Sheila Izquieta-Rojano, University of Navarra. BIOMA Institute
20. Inge Slouwerhof, Radboud University

Read the FAIR Implementation stories produced by this support programme

 

Support programme for Research Performing Organisations
Virtual workshops	Time	Date of Workshop
Workshop 1: Kick-off session and understanding the drivers and potential benefits from becoming FAIR-enabling	15-17 CET	14th February 2024
Workshop 2: FAIR data policies - developing or refining data policies to be more FAIR-enabling	15-17 CET	28th February 2024
Workshop 3: Planning for FAIR Data - developing support services for data management planning	15-17 CET	6th March 2024
Workshop 4: The role of trustworthy data repositories	15-17 CET	13th March 2024
Workshop 5: Training and guidance - building skills for producing and using FAIR data	15-17 CET	20th March 2024
Workshop 6: Developing a FAIR Implementation Action Plan	15-17 CET	27th March 2024
During April, participants will begin to work independently - but with periodic support from their mentors - to develop draft action plans based on the incremental self-assessments that were carried out during and between the thematic workshops.
Workshop 7: Peer knowledge exchange workshop	15-17 CET	24th April 2024
Workshop 8: Developing an Engagement Strategy	15-17 CEST	8th May 2024
During May, June, July and August the participants will continue to flesh out their action plan and meet with their mentors. Participants will be supported to organise one virtual workshop bringing together key stakeholders from across their organisation to share and validate the results of their self-assessment and to introduce the draft action plan.
Workshop 9: Peer knowledge exchange workshop	15-17 CEST	19th June 2024
Workshop 10: Peer knowledge exchange workshop	15-17 CEST	2nd October 2024
Exit interviews will be carried out in late September and will be the basis of a co-produced FAIR Implementation Story summarising the key actions and lessons learned.
Follow-up questionnaire and/or interview with participants 3-6 months after the support programme wraps up to see what progress has been made. We will also seek to learn about challenges and difficulties that have been encountered. (March/April 2025)

3. Support Programme for Repositories and Data Service Providers

 

The FAIR Principles focus on characteristics of digital objects that make them Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. Achieving and maintaining those characteristics depends on the individuals and organisations that create, store, curate, and preserve the objects. These activities are 'FAIR-enabling’, and repositories and data service providers play an important role in facilitating them.

FAIR-IMPACT is here to help you assess your current FAIR-enabling capabilities and develop action plans to improve them. The structure of our support programme is based on components of the ‘FAIR-IMPACT FAIR Implementation Framework’ (FIF), a curated collection of services and tools that can be used to become more FAIR-enabling. The services and tools address a wide range of topics, such as:

Repository policy, e.g. ACME-FAIR, Data support policy for photon and neutron science; Making objects in the repository more FAIR, e.g. CESSDA Data Archiving Guide, FAIR Cookbook; Automated FAIR assessment, e.g. F-UJI, Framework for assessing FAIR services; Repository certification, e.g. CoreTrustSeal+FAIRenabling Capability Maturity Model, FAIRsFAIR repository support;   EOSC readiness, e.g. EOSC Service compliance, DataCite Repository Finder. 

Enabling knowledge exchange is one of the key objectives of the support programme. To this end, in two workshops in June and September participants will share their experiences with peers in the support programme. The programme will wrap-up with a personal exit interview that will result in a co-produced ‘FAIR Implementation Story’ similar to those created in the FAIRsFAIR project, which we will publish in our Zenodo community, to share the unique experience of each participant and enable networking with the wider community. 

The minimum effort expected from participants will be around fifty hours for the whole programme. The actual effort will depend on the specific FIF resources you plan to implement and on input you may need from colleagues in your organisation. To benefit most from the programme, representatives from the participating repositories bring expertise in policy, engagement, and repository technology, split across a maximum of three people, if needed.

This support programme continues the successful repository support programme from the earlier FAIRsFAIR project, but with a broader focus on topics and wider range of resources that repositories can implement to increase their FAIR impact. 

We go beyond the formal FAIR principles and also include guidance for effective strategies to engage with your community and position your organisation in the research landscape. In other words, we are here to make your organisation more successful.

The support programme with selected participants will begin in January 2024 as a series of virtual workshops where we will introduce you to key concepts around FAIR and how they may apply to your organisation. Participants will carry out a supported self-assessment of their current capabilities and develop action plans that are tailored to their needs and ambition. You will receive one-to-one support from the FAIR-IMPACT support team over a period of nine months as you develop and implement your action plans. A series of curated webinars will showcase specific tools and approaches that may help you to implement the FAIR principles in a practical sense and you can do a virtual ‘sight-seeing’ at some of our partners, to see how they implement certain FAIR-enabling practices. 

This call was open for applications between 30th August and 1st November 2023. 

Successful applicants to the Repositories and Data service Providers Support Programme:

1. Chokri Ben Romdhane, CNUDST
2. Julian Lopez Gordillo, Naturalis Biodiversity Centre 
3. Florian Hutzler, Paris-Lodron, University of Salzburg
4. Catherine Jones, UKRI/STFC
5. Elena Poenaru, Carol Davila, University of Medicine and Pharmacy
6. Tatjana Zubic, University of Novi Sad