FAIR-IMPACT Synchronisation Force recommendations for a FAIR EOSC

15 recommendations for a FAIR EOSC

Inspired by strategic reports on FAIR and EOSC from the period 2018-2024, the annual FAIR-IMPACT Synchronisation Force workshops discussed key topics on the road to more FAIR digital objects, with representatives of more than 120 organisations and projects. FAIR-IMPACT published a White Paper with the main recommendations from these workshops, linking them to the relevant Task Forces and Opportunity Area Expert Groups under the EOSC Association, to facilitate their uptake and impact. 

The 15 recommendations aim to increase FAIRness within the European Open Science Cloud, highlighting six topics:

  1. Metrics and assessing FAIRness
  2. Metadata, semantics and interoperability
  3. Persistent identifiers
  4. Legal and organisational interoperability
  5. Trustworthy and FAIR-enabling repositories
  6. Sustainability of project outputs

 

When you want to support the implementation of the recommendations or like to know more about them, you can use the following information, ranked from short to in-depth:

  • The White Paper presents all recommendations in a concise context and contains short narratives of the topics.
  • The reports of the annual FAIR-IMPACT Synchronisation Force workshops are available.
  • From 2022 to 2025 the FAIR-IMPACT project explored and advanced these topics and published about them. This page provides references to FAIR-IMPACT reports and web pages. ‘D’ numbers refer to project deliverables and ‘M’ numbers to project milestones. 

 

FAIR-IMPACT information to learn more about these recommendations

 

Metrics and assessing FAIRness

Rec. 1: Improve the awareness and uptake of FAIR in the research community by providing a platform of stories and lessons related to the implementation of FAIR and associated benefits.

Rec. 2: Develop community-lead recommendations and governance for tests, metrics and tools for the assessment of FAIRness, supported by utilising a comprehensive catalogue of methods, metrics and tests.

FAIR-IMPACT references, in particular for Rec. 2: 

 

Metadata, semantics and interoperability

Rec. 3: Enhance metadata and semantics expertise to enable the creation and sharing of FAIR Semantic Artefacts.

Rec. 4: Develop semantic interoperability through FAIR Semantic Artefacts, via adoption of policies, guidelines and mappings.

FAIR-IMPACT references:

 

Persistent identifiers

Rec. 5: Ensure the interoperability and long-term persistence of PID services and seek convergence of PID systems within a PID stack.

Rec. 6: Integrate widely used PIDs into researchers’ workflows.

FAIR-IMPACT references in particular for Rec. 5:

FAIR-IMPACT references in particular for Rec. 6:

 

Legal and organisational interoperability

Rec. 7: Scale up the knowledge on legal and operational interoperability through a central support programme including training and advice. Support capacity building for Research Infrastructures to acquire and apply such knowledge.

Rec. 8: Continue collaboration on legal and organisational interoperability in new Horizon Europe projects.

Rec. 9: Advocate Creative Commons licenses as the default option.

FAIR-IMPACT references:

 

Trustworthy and FAIR-enabling repositories

Rec. 10: Advance transparency in repository processes to increase their trustworthiness.

Rec. 11: Build an inclusive and collaborative network of TDRs to share experiences and expertise.

Rec. 12: Provide different kinds of support to help repositories increase their trustworthiness.

FAIR-IMPACT references, in particular for Rec. 10:

 

FAIR-IMPACT references, in particular for Rec. 12:

 

Sustainability of project outputs

Rec. 13: Incorporate relevant outputs from EOSC-related projects in the EOSC Federation Handbook.

Rec. 14: Identify potential sustainability pathways for project outputs.

Rec. 15: Create a Sustainability Handbook to capture the common challenges, possible solutions and experiences from projects.

FAIR-IMPACT references:

  • D1.4: Sustainability plan: (to appear)