The category National-Level Initiatives for FAIR encompasses various types of organisations, including:
- Research Infrastructures: Organisations operating at a national level within specific domains, working to harmonise data standards. They may be affiliated with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
- EOSC Mandated Organisations: Entities designated by national decision makers to serve as intermediaries between the national and European (EOSC) levels. These organisations play a pivotal role in advancing FAIR principles and promoting their adoption at the national level.
- Thematic National Initiatives on FAIR: Organisations tasked with driving change among stakeholders within the same scientific domain.
- National Repositories: Platforms that aggregate FAIR data and actively encourage data producers to align their datasets with FAIR principles.
The aim of the support program was “to support representatives from national level initiatives to begin or progress their FAIR-enabling journeys. FAIR-IMPACT was committed to provide examples of good practice, dedicated guidance and one-to-one support to successful applicants to self-assess their current capabilities and to develop FAIR implementation action plans.”
Around 75 individuals with different roles within these organisations participated in the programmes, representing 20 different countries.
Throughout the year, a total of 15 workshops were held. These sessions aimed to inspire participants to develop strategies for implementing the FAIR principles at the national level. The overarching goal of the programme was to guide participants in identifying objectives tailored to their national contexts to advance FAIR practices.
In addition to the workshops, peer exchange sessions were organised to foster mutual learning among participants. These sessions encouraged the sharing of challenges and solutions unique to their national and organisational contexts. Participants also benefited from mentorship, with one-to-one meetings offering opportunities to seek advice and receive tailored guidance on structuring their FAIR Action Plans.
About the support programme
1st support programme: January - september 2024
Four organisations participated in the first support programme. In total, 14 people with different roles within these organisations participated in the first support programme. The workshops were also open to the public. An average of 40 people attended each session.
Seven workshops were held between January and September 2024. These sessions aimed to inspire participants to develop strategies for implementing the FAIR principles at national level. Overall, the programme aimed to guide participants in identifying objectives relevant to their national context for promoting FAIR.
In parallel to the workshops, peer exchange sessions were organised to promote mutual learning among participants. These sessions encouraged participants to share challenges and solutions specific to their national settings and organisational contexts. Participants also benefited from mentorship, with one-to-one meetings providing an opportunity to ask questions and receive guidance on structuring their FAIR Action Plans.
Throughout the programme, participants demonstrated a strong commitment to finding practical solutions to take FAIR forward at national level. They worked actively on their plans and began to engage with their networks, including ministries, universities and repositories, on FAIR-related issues. The FAIR-IMPACT team was pleased to see their achievements at the end of the programme.
At the end of September 2024, the second support programme for national level initiatives was launched. This new phase involves around 38 organisations from 16 different countries, with around 75 participants. Over four months, they took part in a programme of 10 workshops and peer exchanges.
As part of the FAIR-IMPACT project, Implementation Stories will be shared on the FAIR-IMPACT website, drawing on the experiences of all participants. These stories aim to provide concrete examples of different national contexts, highlighting both challenges and opportunities, and illustrating how countries are moving towards the adoption of the FAIR Principles at national level.
2nd support programme: September 2024 - January 2025
Between September 2024 and January 2025, the FAIR-Impact project organized ten workshops as part of the support for FAIR implementation on National Level. The first eight workshops covered specific target groups (e.g. funders and researchers) and related topics (e.g. methodology, competence centers). The two peer exchange workshops were the last ones in the series. They can be considered as specific use cases in which representatives of different countries presented their main objectives to engage on FAIR at National level, the partners that are active in this process, the main challenges encountered, and the solutions found until today.
The first session was organised on December 6, 2024, and contained presentations of the following countries: Romania, Ireland, Uk, Estonia, France, Bulgaria, and Greece. The second peer exchange session was organised on January 16, 2025, and contained presentations of representatives of Italy, Finland, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, and Croatia.
The presentations covered sharing knowledge, identifying good practices and addressing shared challenges to implement and support the FAIR principles. Each country's presentation consisted of four topics. First, the main objectives to engage on FAIR at the national level. Second, an overview of the main partners in the process. Third, the key challenges to achieve FAIR at the national level. And fourth, the solutions found to date. Challenges mentioned in several presentations were lack of (long-term) funding, lack of awareness and training, fragmentation, ethical and legal constraints, lack of a unified national strategy and limited expertise. All countries have a national strategy for Open Science. Each country has its own way regarding the coordination and implementation of this strategy. Details on this are given in the country presentations. Each workshop ended with a discussion based on questions from the participants.
Read more on call for national-level initiatives
| Country | Affiliation | kind of organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Bulgaria | Ministry of Education and science | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Croatia | Rudjer Boskovic Institute | |
| Croatia | University of Zagreb University Computing Centre | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Czech Republic | Masaryk University | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Estonia | University of Tartu | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Finland | CSC – IT Center for Science | |
| France | Architecture et Fonction des Macromolécules Biologiques, FRISBI node |
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| France | Proteomics French Infrastructure | |
| France | France Bioimaging - CNRS |
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| Greece | Greek Research and Technology Network |
EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Hungary | Eötvös Loránd University; Faculty of Humanities; Department of Digital Humanities |
|
| Hungary | Governmental Agency for IT Development |
EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Ireland | Digital Repository of Ireland |
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| Ireland | National education and research network of Ireland | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Ireland | National Open Research Forum, Royal Irish Academy |
|
| Italy | Fondazione Bruno Kessler | |
| Italy | Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials | |
| Italy | Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica | |
| Italy | Politecnico di Torino, Department of Applied Science and Technologies | |
| Italy | Sapienza University of Rome | |
| Luxembourg | Luxembourg National Data Service | |
| Netherlands | Thematic Digital Competence Centre (TDCC) for the Natural & Engineering Sciences (NES) |
|
| North Macedonia | Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Portugal | Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Portugal | Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research - CIIMAR | |
| Portugal | Centro de Ciencas do Mar e do Ambiente | |
| Portugal | Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical | |
| Portugal | Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa | |
| Romania | National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Romania | Universitatea de Științe Agronomice și Medicină Veterinară din București | |
| Slovakia | Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| Spain | Fundacion dialnet | |
| Tunisia | Centre National Universitaire de Documentation Scientifique et Technique | |
| Ukraine | Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine | EOSC Mandated Organisation |
| United Kingdom | Centre for Environmental Data Analysis | |
| United Kingdom | National Oceanography Centre, British Oceanographic Data Centre | |
| United Kingdom | UK Research and Innovation - DRI | |
| United Kingdom | UK Research and Innovation - research england |
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Further links:
- RDA (Research Data Alliance): Subscribe to the RDA newsletter and follow their website for updates on data management practices and standards.
- FAIRsharing: Visit the FAIRsharing website and sign up for their newsletters to stay updated on FAIR principles and resources.
- EOSC Association:
- Sign up for newsletters
- Get engaged into relevant Opportunity Areas Expert Groups
- Join the EOSC Forum
- Follow the Federation’ building process
Resources to be shared
| Type of resources | Description/ Inspiration | Final Link to be shared |
|---|---|---|
| Webpage | The "Tripartite Collaboration" section on the EOSC Association's website provides information about EOSC governance model, processess, stakeholders and ways of communication for engagement. |
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| Webpage | The "Interviews with Mandated Organisations" section on the EOSC Association's website features interviews with EOSC-Mandated Organisations from diverse European countries. These interviews offer insights into national FAIR and Open Science initiatives, strategies, and collaborations, highlighting each country's role in shaping the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). More than 20 interviews are currently available, offering diverse perspectives on FAIR and Open Science policies, challenges, and opportunities, as well as their efforts toward implementing EOSC. | https://eosc.eu/news/category/mo-interviews/ |
| Powerpoint | The Introduction to FAIR Implementation Workshop, part of the second edition of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme for national initiatives, was held on 26 September. Three speakers, Suzanne Dumouchel and Salomé Landel (from CNRS - French National Scientific Research Centre) and Rita Meneses (from Trust IT), presented the objectives and ambitions of the EOSC FAIR-IMPACT project to support and monitor the national development of FAIR practices. The aim of this workshop is "to design a plan for FAIR at national level based on the reality [of the workshop participants]". The expected actions and homework of the participants are detailed. Finally, participants answer a survey to identify their identity and needs, and learn about the FAIR-IMPACT support team and resources for future workshops. | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15056138 |
| Powerpoint | The FAIR Implementation workshop “FAIR-IMPACT support for National Level Initiatives: National level impact on FAIR”, part of the second running of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme for National Level Initiatives, was delivered on 1 October 2024. Ilire Hasani Mavriqi (University of Graz) gave a presentation about the Austrian EOSC Mandated Organisation, Austrian national FAIR initiatives and main achievements on the area. Sara Garavelli (CSC – IT Center for Science) gave a presentation on many efforts to impact FAIR agenda in Finland and about the EOSC Finnish Forum as a national coordinator. The two presentations gave many examples of national level implementation of FAIR principles in infrastructures and policies, national level collaboration and linking FAIR activities to EOSC. | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15046122 |
| Powerpoint | The workshop ‘Incentives from funders to encourage the application of the FAIR principles’ is part of the 2nd edition of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme and was organised on 9 October 2024. Funding can obviously be an important incentive for funders to encourage the application of the FAIR principles. The workshop began with presentations by representatives of funding organisations from France, Poland and Switzerland. France was represented by ANR (Agence Nationale de la recherce), Poland by NCC (National Science Center) and Switzerland by SNSF (Schweizeriger Nationalfionds). Some common themes put forward by the funders were that an Open Access policy is central to their activities, as well as the role of Data Management Plans (DMP) in the funding schemes. A third commonality is the importance of training activities to best inform all stakeholders. | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15114264 |
| Powerpoint | This two-hour workshop focused on the topic of research assessment and shared practical experiences of ongoing activities in France and Poland to align with and progress research assessment reform via the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). The workshop features keynote presentatons by Laurence El-Khouri, Deputy Director of the Open Research Data Department (DDOR), CNRS and Katarzyna Nawrot, Deputy Chair of the Committee of Future Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15102170 |
| Powerpoint | The FAIR Implementation workshop ‘Engaging researchers with FAIR-ness’, part of the second running of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme for National Level Initiatives, was delivered on 6 November 2024. Two keynote speakers, Helen Clare (Senior e-Infrastructure Strategy Manager for Jisc in the United Kingdom) and Celia van Gelder (Health-RI Training Programme Manager and Network Manager of TDCC-LSH in The Netherlands) covered their national perspectives on engaging researchers over the FAIR principles and Open Research practices. The workshop also introduces general objectives of the European Open Science Cloud and the collaborative work of Opportunity Area Expert Group 5 – Skills, Training, Rewards, Recognition and Upscaling, before concluding by emphasising collaboration, persistence, and patience in the journey toward ‘Going FAIR’. | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14900967 |
| Powerpoint | The FAIR Implementation workshop “FAIR-IMPACT support for National Level Initiatives: How to build an action plan for FAIR”, part of the second running of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme for National Level Initiatives, was delivered on 12 November 2024. Four keynote speakers, Suzanne Dumouchel (CNRS), Marion Massol (INRAE) & Salomé Landel (CNRS) and Loek Brinkman (DANS) presented a structured methodology/ framework for developing a national FAIR implementation plan emphasizing collaboration, structured planning, and community involvement. The main points of the national FAIR implementation plan cover landscape analysis, objective setting, action definition, stakeholder engagement, and prioritization. The speakers encouraged an approach with incremental steps toward FAIR adoption and collaboration among national stakeholders. | https://zenodo.org/records/15040466 |
| Powerpoint | The FAIR Implementation workshop “Introduction to the Skills4EOSC Competence Centres”, part of the second running of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme for National Level Initiatives, was delivered on 20 November 2024. Two keynote speakers, Sara Di Giorgio Coordinator Skills4EOSC Open Science Policy & International Relations Officers - GARR and Gabriella Paolini Training and e-learning manager – GARR introduced the Skills4EOSC initiative, which aims to harmonise Open Science skills training across Europe. The presentation outlined the role of Competence Centres (CCs) as national and regional hubs for FAIR data expertise, Open Science training, and policy engagement. The workshop covered information regarding the training programs, the “Train the Trainers” initiative, and the Recognition Framework, which includes Open Badges and European Digital Credentials (EDC). | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15038478 |
| Powerpoint | The FAIR Implementation workshop “Examples of national initiatives for FAIR: Greece and the Netherlands”, part of the second running of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme for National Level Initiatives, was delivered on 29 November 2024. Two keynote speakers, Marta Teperek - Programme Leader for FAIR Data Open Science NL organisation and Fotis Mystakopoulos - Project Policy Officer - OPERAS RI, presented how Greece and the Netherlands are advancing FAIR principles at the national level. The Netherlands approach supports FAIR implementation through policy development, infrastructure funding, and national training programs, all states in the Dutch national Open Science programme. Greece to guide FAIR adoption developed the National Plan for Open Science and is focusing on strengthening research infrastructures, fostering training programs, and engaging in European collaborations like EOSC and Skills4EOSC. | https://zenodo.org/records/15045110 |
| Video | Already described on the website | https://fair-impact.eu/events/fair-impact-events/french-data-management… |
| Video | https://fair-impact.eu/events/fair-impact-events/2-building-fair-skills… |
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| Video | https://fair-impact.eu/events/fair-implementation-workshops/engaging-re… |
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| Video | https://fair-impact.eu/events/fair-impact-events/fair-national-plan-ger… |
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| Video | https://fair-impact.eu/events/fair-impact-events/open-access-publishing… |
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| Video | https://fair-impact.eu/events/fair-impact-events/assessing-national-cur… |
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| Tool | In preparation for the second running of the FAIR-IMPACT support programme for national-level initiatives, the FAIR-IMPACT T2.5 team developed a preparatory questionnaire and self-assessment checklist for participants to reflect on their main drivers, policies, and challenges for implementing the FAIR principles. The team distributed the questionnaire in September 2024 and based it in part on the guiding questions of the FAIR Implementation Framework (https://fair-impact.eu/fair-implementation-framework). The questionnaire and templates for analysing responses are archived here [add link] for future use. | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14883638 |