WorldFAIR @ RDA’S 10 Year Anniversary: The WorldFAIR Case Study on Plant-pollinator Interactions (WP10)

In 2023 the Research Data Alliance is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. We’re excited to commemorate this important milestone with our community by organising a series of international and regional events and activities dedicated to a specific theme related to research data management of relevance to the RDA community.

As part of this event series, WorldFAIR WP10 (Agricultural Biodiversity) will present their findings from their discovery phase: FAIR assessments, good practices, tools and examples to create, manage and share data related to plant-pollinator interactions.

You can find out more about WorldFAIR WP10: Agricultural Biodiversity by visiting the dedicated webpage.

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WorldFAIR Project webinar series announced

The WorldFAIR Project is launching a webinar series aiming to promote and discuss all published and upcoming deliverables and project outputs.

The webinars will run from May 2023 to May 2024. They are free to attend.

Please note all webinars will be recorded and uploaded on the WorldFAIR YouTube channel and website.

The following webinars are currently confirmed – more dates will be added soon, so stay tuned!

TopicDate/timeDescriptionSpeakersRegistrationWebinar recording
WorldFAIR Project: Introduction to the WorldFAIR webinar series. 26 May, 13:00 – 14:00 UTCThis webinar ran by WP14 will present the WorldFAIR project and give an overview of the work carried out by the WPs in the context of EOSC and the international data landscape.Ari Asmi (RDA AISBL Director), Hilary Hanahoe (RDA Secretary General), Javier López Albacete (Policy Officer, EC)Register hereTBC
WorldFAIR Output Webinar Series: Overview of the projects first round of disciplinary reports: Updates from the Social Surveys and Cultural Heritage.14 June 2023,
08:00 – 09:00 UTC
This webinar will present the following deliverables completed by WP6 and WP13 respectively:

– Cross-national Social Sciences survey FAIR implementation case studies (6.1)
– Cultural Heritage Mapping Report (13.1)
Steven McEachern (WP6), Beth Knazook (WP13)Register hereTBC
WorldFAIR Output Webinar Series: WorldFAIR FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIPs), the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF) – and more. (v1)28 June 2023,
13:00 – 14:00 UTC
WP2 will provide an update on D2.1 and the FAIR Implementation Profiles as well as about the engagement with the Case Studies on their data, identification of ‘interoperability interfaces’ and the implications for the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF).  Simon Hodson, Arofan Gregory (WP1, WP2)Register hereTBC
WorldFAIR Output Webinar Series: Overview of the projects first round of disciplinary reports: Updates from Chemistry and Nanomaterials. 13 September 2023, 14:00 – 15:00 UTCThis webinar will present the following deliverables completed by WP3 and WP4 respectively:

– Digital recommendations for Chemistry FAIR data policy and practice (3.1)
– Nanomaterials domain-specific FAIRification mapping (4.1)
Leah Rae McEwen, Fatima Mustafa, Ian Bruno, Stuart Chalk (WP3); Iseult Lynch (WP4), more speakers TBCRegister hereTBC
WorldFAIR Output Webinar Series: Overview of the projects first round of disciplinary reports: Updates from Biodiversity and Agriculture 20 September 2023, 13:00 – 14:00 UTCThis webinar will present the following deliverables completed by WP9 and WP10 respectively:

– Data standard for sharing ecological and environmental monitoring data documented
for community review (9.1)
– Agriculture-related pollinator data standards use cases report (10.1)
Joe Miller (WP9); Debora Pignatari Drucker, Maarten Trekels, Quentin Groom (WP10)Register hereTBC
WorldFAIR Output Webinar Series: Overview of the projects first round of disciplinary reports: Updates from Population Health and Urban HealthOctober 2023, date TBCThis webinar will present the following deliverables completed by WP7 and WP8 respectively:

Population Health Data Implementation Guide (7.1)
Urban Health Data – Guidelines and Recommendations (8.1)
Jim Todd (WP7); Ana Ortigoza (WP8)TBCTBC
WorldFAIR Output Webinar Series: Overview of the projects first round of disciplinary reports: Disaster Risk Reduction Updates15 November 2023, 20:00 – 21:00 UTCThis webinar will present the following deliverables completed by WP12:
– Disaster Risk Reduction Case study report (12.1)
– Disaster Risk Reduction Domain-specific FAIR vocabularies (12.2)
Jill Bolland, Bapon Fakhruddin T+T (WP12)Register hereTBC
WorldFAIR Output Webinar Series: Overview of the projects first round of disciplinary reports: Cultural Heritage and Social Surveys updates v2This webinar will present the following deliverables completed by WP13 and WP6 respectively: Cultural Heritage Recommendations (13.2) Cross-national Social Sciences survey best practice guidelines (6.2)Steven McEachern (WP6), Beth Knazook (WP13)TBCTBC

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WorldFAIR at RDA Plenary 20: Synopsis 

The WorldFAIR project partners were present at multiple breakout sessions throughout the RDA Plenary 20 week, either leading them or delivering short presentations. This section presents selected highlights of the project’s presence at the Plenary. 

Describing diverse chemistry datasets across distributed data resources (FAIRChemistry – WP3, OneGeochemistry – WP5)

The Chemistry Research Data Interest Group ran a session titled ‘Describing diverse chemistry datasets across distributed data resources‘. The session provided updates and perspectives from regional and disciplinary initiatives relevant to chemistry, focusing on the challenge of describing chemistry data sets to enable interoperability and reuse across resources and domains. This was followed by a discussion that aimed to identify cross-community challenges that might be addressed through activities within the RDA. The discussion identified areas of focus that the group will aim to take forward, in collaboration with other RDA groups and community initiatives.

Presentations by FAIRChemistry (WP3)

As part of the Birds of a Feather session ‘Data representation in materials and chemicals based on harmonised domain ontologies‘ WP3’s Stuart Chalk presented the IUPAC Gold Book: A Compendium of Chemical Terminology, one of the series of IUPAC ‘Colour Books’ on chemical nomenclature, terminology, symbols and units. Stuart also showcased a Chemical Analysis Use Case in the session The Way to FAIR: from data collection to citation, and presented during the session Practical implementations of the I-ADOPT framework and future directions.

Agricultural Biodiversity (WP10)

Maarten Trekels gave an update on the WorldFAIR Case study on Plant-Pollinator interactions during the session Improving Global Agricultural Data (IGAD) Community of Practice First Steps and Way Forward

Cultural Heritage (WP13)

Joan Murphy gave a lightning talk during the session Expanding our horizons to new disciplines: harmonising on what is core to all on the high level objectives of WorldFAIR, the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF) and the potential relevance of WP13’s image file work for all disciplines.
On 20 March, Ari Asmi (WP14) welcomed WorldFAIR partners and RDA-EOSC Future Awardees to a joint networking event. The reception provided the perfect opportunity for closer collaboration between RDA projects with an EOSC focus and the WorldFAIR disciplinary case studies, in order to make connections along disciplinary data challenges, and to internationalise the European projects.

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IMPLEMENTING THE UNESCO RECOMMENDATION ON OPEN SCIENCE TO ADDRESS GLOBAL CHALLENGES: Agricultural sciences data challenges (wp10)

The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021) provides an international framework for the global transformation of societies towards Open Science. It sets out the fundamental principles of human rights and ethics that define the leading role UNESCO has in ensuring science benefits all by promoting just and equitable access to knowledge and other products of the scientific endeavour.

UNESCO, ISC, CODATA and WDS organised a symposium to explore the existing and most recent cooperative scientific, digital, and ethics frameworks for advancing the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science across its Areas of Action. 

We spoke to Debora Drucker (Embrapa) who presented at the Symposium on behalf of WP10:

“I presented our approach of building the case study on agricultural biodiversity within the WolrdFAIR project as an example and strategy of dealing with the data challenges in agricultural sciences, which are inherently interdisciplinary and need interoperability across domains and societies. This initiative was born within the IGAD/RDA Improving Global Agricultural Data (IGAD) Community of Practice and gathers various initiatives, especially the TDWG Biological Interaction Data Interest Group and the SURPASS2 project, which is also linked to the Brazilian Network of Plant-Pollinator Interactions.

Plant-pollinator interactions sustain biodiversity, so they also support directly or indirectly most of the Sustainable Development Goals. Our major goal is to ensure FAIR data for understanding plant-pollinator interactions at biologically relevant scales for crops. We identified opportunities of aligning ongoing efforts to FAIRify plant-pollinator data: through the GBIF Unified data model, the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF) and finding commonalities with the other domains. For instance – how does climate change affect pollinators and pollination? What about disasters?

The key messages of my presentation at the Symposium were:

Building on Existing Communities of Practice is Key,

Ensuring Global participation is needed (across domains and societies),

Research institutions and data driven decision making initiatives must be aligned,

Science Policy Initiatives (IPBES, UNESCO,…) drive important efforts that can really make a difference for advancing knowledge and inform decisions.”

Debora’s slides are available here.

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Worldfair @ The RDA’s 10th Anniversary Events and Activities

February, June 2023 | Virtual events

In 2023 the Research Data Alliance is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. The RDA is commemorating this important milestone with the community by organising a series of international and regional events and activities dedicated to a specific theme related to research data management of relevance to the RDA community.

January10th anniversary launch
FebruaryFAIR data, software and hardware
MarchA Decade of Data
AprilHealth and medical data
MayMetadata and technical infrastructure
JuneAgriculture and environmental data
JulyResearch data policy
AugustDisciplinary data
SeptemberSustainable development and responsible research
OctoberA festival of data
NovemberResearch data management support and education
DecemberAnniversary highlights

The WorldFAIR project has proposed two events as part of the above schedule:

  • WorldFAIR: Image sharing systems and practices in Cultural Heritage. February 2023. Work Package 13 (WP13) presents their landscaping report identifying how Cultural Heritage institutions engage with FAIR (examining formats and image delivery technologies). This workshop will aim to have a community discussion around this report. More information will follow.
  • WorldFAIR Case Study on Plant-pollinator Interactions Data. June 2023. A webinar providing an overview of what we have produced at the discovery phase: FAIR assessments, good practices, tools and examples to create, manage and share data related to plant-pollinator interactions.

Find out more about the event.

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WorldFAIR: Global cooperation on FAIR data policy and practice – workshops introduce wide range of research domains to FAIR Implementation Profiles

The WorldFAIR project held a series of successful workshops between July and October 2022 to introduce and complete FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIPs) with eleven case study work packages.  This process culminated in a plenary meeting of the WorldFAIR case studies, “FIPs in WorldFAIR: What have we learnt?” which took place as part of the FAIR Convergence Symposium in Leiden on 25 October 2022.
 
The WorldFAIR project is a major global collaboration between partners from thirteen countries across Africa, Australasia, Europe, and North and South America.  WorldFAIR advances implementation of the FAIR data principles, in particular those for Interoperability, by developing a cross-domain interoperability framework and recommendations for FAIR assessment in a set of eleven disciplines or cross-disciplinary research areas.
 
The WorldFAIR case studies have been carefully chosen to provide maximum impact. The objective of each case study is to develop an interoperability framework for their discipline or interdisciplinary research area. They are clustered in connected groups in order to maximise scope while retaining a critical mass of activity and allowing learning and cross-fertilisation of ideas. Collected from CODATA and RDA activities and partnerships, the case studies include leading organisations in a range of research areas, supporting the creation of outputs with global impact.
 
The FIPs approach consists of a set of questions about practice in relation to each of the FAIR principles.  It is supported by an online tool, the FIPs Wizard. One of the potential benefits of this approach is the creation, as ‘nanopublications’ of a set of FIPs and FAIR Enabling Resources, coded in RDF, which can be read by machines, visualised, and analysed. With use, the creation of more FIPs and FERs will furnish a resource which can potentially give great insights into FAIR practices.
 
At our plenary workshop during the FAIR Convergence Symposium, six of the case studies presented and reflected on the process of constructing their FIP, specifically what they learned from the process; whether using FIPs helped describe practices around FAIR; whether the FIP helped identify any gaps or areas which would benefit from further attention; ways in which the FIPs methodology and the tools around it can be improved; and the identification of next steps.  Arofan Gregory (CODATA) then reflected on the implications of these observations for our work on the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework, a major output of WorldFAIR.

We are grateful to Leah McEwan, Ian Bruno and Stuart Chalk (Chemistry); Iseult Lynch and Thomas Exner (Nanomaterials); Steve McEachern and Hilde Orten (Social Surveys); Maarten Trekels and Debora Drucker (Agricultural Biodiversity); Bapon Fakhruddin and Jill Bolland (Disaster Risk Reduction) and Beth Knazook (Cultural Heritage) for their insights.
 
WorldFAIR forms the core of CODATA’s contribution to the International Science Council (ISC) Action Plan Project 2.1, Making Data Work For Cross-Domain Grand Challenges.  WorldFAIR runs for 24 months from 1 June 2022 and is funded by the European Commission through its Horizon Europe Framework Programme, project call HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-01, grant agreement 101058393. Project website: https://worldfair-project.eu.  

‘Global cooperation on FAIR data policy and practice’ (WorldFAIR) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe project call HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-01, grant agreement 101058393. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. 
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KENYA AGRICULTURAL AND LIVESTOCK RESEARCH ORGANISATION (KALRO)

The national blueprint Vision 2030 recognizes the role of research in technology generation and the creation of new knowledge, all of which are vital to national development. Vision 2030 also places great importance on value addition in agriculture and livestock as a means of raising rural household incomes, as captured by the sector’s driving strategy, the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy 2010-2020. In implementing the second medium-term plan, the Kenya government reformed the national agricultural research system through the creation of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). Its formation was aimed at restructuring agricultural and livestock research into a dynamic, innovative, responsive, and well-coordinated system driven by a common vision and goal. KALRO is a corporate body created under the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Act of 2013 to establish a suitable legal and institutional framework for the coordination of agricultural research in Kenya with the following goals:

To encourage, streamline, coordinate, and regulate crop, livestock, genetic resources, and biotechnology research in Kenya.

-To expedite equitable access to research information, resources, and technology and promote the application of research findings and technology in the field of agriculture.

While striving to fulfill the stated goals, KALRO will be obliged to:

  1. Formulate policy and make policy recommendations to the Cabinet Secretary on agricultural research.
  2. Prioritize areas for, and coordinate, agricultural research in Kenya in line with the national policy on agriculture.
  3. Determine and advise the government on the resource requirements for agricultural research in Kenya, both at the national and county level.
  4. Regulate, monitor, and ensure that all agricultural research undertaken by research institutes and other institutions or individuals undertaking agricultural research is consistent with the national priorities specified in the relevant policy documents.
  5. Establish and exercise control over the research institutes, committees, and research centers established pursuant to this Act.
  6. Formulate or approve medium and long-term research plans, strategies, and budgets of research institutes, committees, and organizations established pursuant to this Act.
  7. We provide grants to research institutes and people desirous of carrying out research and training programs that are consistent with the national research priorities and plans of the organization.
  8. Support and promote training and capacity-building in relation to agricultural research.
  9. To promote the dissemination and application of research findings in the field of agriculture and the establishment of a science park.
  10. Liaise with and ensure the coordination of institutions, agencies, and people involved in agricultural research.
  11. Establish platforms for the purposes of sharing research information, advancing research and technology transfer, and dissemination of information relating to advancements made in agricultural research.
  12. Ensure the continuance of performance improvement in the field of agricultural research.
  13. Perform any other duties that may be delegated to it by this Act or any other written law. For more information on KALRO, please refer to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Act No. 17 of 2013.