FAIR-IMPACT project response to "Community-driven governance of FAIRness assessment: an open issue, an open discussion"

At the end of 2022, an author group led by the EOSC Association Task Force on FAIR Metrics and Data Quality published ‘Community-driven governance of FAIRness assessment: an open issue, an open discussion’ which, as the title suggests, aims to foster an open debate with the community around FAIRness governance and the mechanism(s) that could be used to implement it. The FAIR-IMPACT project is keen to take part in this open community discussion, as many tasks and activities in this project focus on advancing FAIR assessment metrics and tools in various ways.

FAIR-IMPACT supports the implementation of FAIR-enabling practices, tools and services across scientific communities at a European, national and institutional level. One of our overall objectives is to expand FAIRness assessment metrics and tools to cover a broader scope of digital objects (data, software, semantic objects) as well as to add community-specificity to the metrics and tools. Working so closely with FAIR assessment metrics and tools, as well as being involved in the projects’ synchronisation efforts to better harmonise the current landscape, we acknowledge and experience the complications that the lack of governance entails for the field of FAIR and assessment. This document presents our thoughts and views on the whitepaper and is our public effort for participation in the community discussion.