FAIR to care? Repository landscaping and support for FAIR in Europe

Recently, two large EU research infrastructure projects supported data repositories in their efforts to apply for CoreTrustSeal certification and implement FAIR principles in their operations. The projects differed from each other in scope, disciplines and region covered. The SSHOC project looked at European repositories in SSH fields but did not focus on FAIR. The EOSC-Nordic project targeted repositories in the Nordic countries and the Baltics, regardless of discipline, and took into account the uptake of FAIR and the measurement of FAIR maturity.

This presentation summarises some specific results from both projects and from two perspectives. First, what vital information do the repositories convey to their customers about their services, their mission, and the quality and trustworthiness of their services. Is the information provided generally sufficient for a trusted digital repository or is something missing? Second, how the automated measurement of current FAIR maturity and efforts to improve it took place in practice, and whether conclusions can be drawn from the results that would accurately demonstrate that FAIR has been successfully implemented in the repository. Do the maturity evaluation results support the findings from the desk study and do the evaluation results correspond to differences and groupings observed in the study?

Regarding FAIR, the results of the project studies have been supplemented with a few additional reviews for this presentation. In addition, information whether data on minorities was provided by the repository has been included. Finally, the recommendations provided by the EOSC-Nordic task team on FAIRification for the implementation of the FAIR principles have been used as an explanatory factor for success in the evaluation.