Looking back at 2022 within the Health-RI FAIR Data Implementation team

What a year 2022 has been in our FAIR Data Implementation Team!  Scroll down and discover what kept us busy, and how to find out more information.  

Maturity assessment 

Because we have got quite a mission ahead of us (see our 2022-23 workplan), we need to know where we are starting from. This is why we first defined a baseline: how are the nodes organised in terms of FAIR data practices.  

For this we used the 'Do I pass for FAIR' (pdf) assessment combined with interviews for each node. In general, the nodes scored well on topics such as data policy, service units, communication, data findability and mutual cooperation. Scores were lower on data reusability, rewards of FAIR experts, evaluation of the FAIR process and having an overview of the number of datasets in house.  

Overall, the baseline measurement identified a need for more FAIR related competences among researchers and data stewards (including sharing best practices) and a necessary culture change regarding FAIR. With this in mind, we got started on top priority activities described below. 

Our activities in 2022 

In 2022, the hub team grew a lot! Bruna Vieira, Jolanda Strubel and Fieke Schoots joined, with precious expertise, ready to kick-off activities with the regional nodes.  

Our activities during the last year included:  

• Setting up the team & priorities 

1. Task forces have been formed for the activities - clustered in the topics 'Making data FAIR', 'Capacity building' and 'Advocacy', together with the regional nodes 

2. Regular activity updates are being sent to FAIR Coordinators and the wider nodes teams 

3. The team also helped with the mapping of various Health-RI use cases identifying where impact could be achieved and where FAIRification efforts should be prioritized 

• Initiating discussions with a wider group of stakeholders to remove barriers for data reuse 

1. The Obstacle removal trajectory was defined after various consultations with hospitals, government bodies, research institutes, companies, etc. The FAIR DI team co-led discussions for Cluster 3 focusing on obstacles related to findability and standards  

• Identifying work processes  

1. A first version of the demonstrator & data champions portfolio was published  

2. We mapped FAIRification processes currently used in the health domain to the FAIRopoly workflow to identify the general, critical steps.  Next, we will write “recipes” for these critical steps, describing how to implement them in the health research infrastructures  

3. We identified the different steps needed to find a community standard for FAIR metadata and discussed these with representatives from cohort studies. The roadmap will help design the process for other domains   

4. We are educating ourselves on FIPs (FAIR Implementation Profiles) and are looking into how we could use them within Health-RI 

5. Julia Lischke, Luiz Bonino and Bruna Vieira are working on mapping the COVID portal metadata to DCAT and expanding the schemas for a broader Health RI metadata portal  

• Building capacity  

1. Together with the regional nodes an inventory of training and training needs was done 

2. First steps towards a portfolio of FAIR data stewardship training have been made, as we are developing a basics course for health data stewards, to be followed by a more in depth FAIR training 

• Advocating for FAIR  

1. An initial collection of key messages for FAIR was realized  

2. A presentation was given to the patient representation board at Health-RI on the importance and effects of FAIR principles 

3. We also engaged with various stakeholders (including funders) through the Obstacle removal trajectory and others initiatives 

If you have any questions on these activities, contact us via fairservicedesk@health-ri.nl.