D5.8 Pan-European Uptake FinalReport

The Charter of the EOSC Task Force on Researcher Engagement and Adoption, set-up in September 2021, states that “The overarching principle for developing EOSC is that research has to be at the core of the EOSC initiative. Thus, deep engagement with research communities is fundamental in order to understand their needs and requirements and ensure that the way in which EOSC operates and the existing and future community services are of use and value to researchers and respect the academic sovereignty of scientific results, research data and digital objects”.

Over the last 36 months, FAIRsFAIR has provided practical solutions for the implementation of FAIR data principles throughout the research data life cycle. This has been achieved by fostering FAIR data culture and the uptake of good practices in making data FAIR. The FAIRsFAIR project addressed the development and concrete realisation of academic quality data management, procedures, standards, metrics and related matters, based on the FAIR principles.

The engagement of European stakeholders was fundamental across all the activities. To that end, a mix of channels was used with the ultimate aim to ensure active participation and an overall feeling of being part of an enlarged community. For example, a bottom-up approach was established wherever possible and relevant; adaptation and flexibility ensured that  the best engagement channels were used to reach each target community.

It is important to highlight how the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting decision to organise workshops as online events had a positive impact on allowing interested participants in several activities to be reached. In particular, the switch to online events was instrumental in involving professionals from universities and other higher education institutions, who usually experience a different set of capacity and budgetary challenges, in attending physical events held outside or far from their countries. But this was also true for other events including the Synchronisation Force series, the national roadshows and the data steward instructor training. The participation of different stakeholders in the online workshops greatly enriched the discussions and contributed to shift the focus from Europe-centric issues involving FAIR research data with international insights and experiences.

In order to present the impact achieved, this document presents the activities performed and analyses the related results around the FAIRsFAIR main stakeholders.