D3.1 FAIR Policy Landscape Analysis

As part of the EOSC project family the FAIRsFAIR - Fostering Fair Data Practices in Europe - project aims to supply practical solutions for the use of the FAIR data principles throughout the research data life cycle. The FAIRsFAIR project runs from March 2019-February 2022. Policies are a crucial component in the FAIR ecosystem. To this end, FAIRsFAIR Work Package 3 (WP3): FAIR Data Policy and Practice carried out an analysis of the current data policy landscape at various levels (national, funder, publisher, institutional) to provide a snapshot of the situation in 2019 and to identify policy elements that support or hinder FAIR data practice. To provide a comparative baseline for reviewing the data policies of various stakeholders, the priority and supporting actions presented in the Turning FAIR into Reality (TFiR) action plan were employed. To assess how well the policies of different stakeholders currently reflect TFiR’s action plan, we carried out desk research to characterise policies, undertook an analysis of
responses to an open consultation, and conducted a small number of interviews. This report presents the findings of these landscape assessment activities and provides an evidence base for FAIRsFAIR to build upon as work begins to define a set of practical recommendations to support policy enhancement (D3.3).

Landscaping activities have been a core activity during the initial stages of the FAIRsFAIR project and there has been close cooperation with colleagues in Work Package 3 carrying out the FAIR data policy and practice analyses; Work Package 2 on assessing FAIR requirements for interoperability and persistence; Work Package 6 on providing an overview of research communities’ needs for competence centres; and Work Package 7 on mapping RDM policies and support as well as FAIR education offerings in European HEIs. In particular, efforts were made to avoid duplication of effort across the three open consultation and survey instruments developed to assess the current landscape and to define a consistent approach to presenting our findings.