mTeSS-X: A Federated, FAIR-Aligned Platform for Distributed Management and Exchange of Training Resources

As the life sciences and adjacent disciplines increasingly rely on complex, data-driven methods, there is an urgent need for robust, interoperable infrastructure to support the organization, discovery, and reuse of training resources, which also motivates use of RDM infrastructures. The mTeSS-X Project (Multi-space Training e-Support System with eXchange) overcomes the fragmentation of training resources across Research Infrastructures (RIs) and the Science Clusters. The project aims to enhance existing TeSS-based training registries or catalogues like ELIXIR TeSS and PANOSC's PaN-Training by building an aggregator (TeSSHub) for these and similar platforms. Designed to be flexible and community-driven, mTeSS-X enables institutions and research infrastructures to operate autonomous training registries that can exchange metadata across a shared, standards-compliant ecosystem. The project addresses the challenge to enrich metadata and align with best practices for metadata quality [1] and contributes to the fulfilment of the latest data strategies from our communities [2, 3]. Each deployed mTeSS-X instance is going to support multiple self-contained tenants that support local customization while adhering to common interoperability protocols. Tenants are capable of harvesting and enriching metadata from internal or external sources and can share selected content with other instances or aggregators. This federated model supports the FAIR principles [4] by decentralizing data stewardship while enabling global findability and reuse. Training resources in mTeSS-X are described using schemas.science (previously Bioschemas) metadata profiles [5] which will be the basis for exchange between registries. The mTeSS-X project strives to support the federation of training registries using a multi-tenancy approach (mTeSS), and enabling cross-instance exchange (TeSS-X) [6]. Objective mTeSS: Training registries are pooled into a shared instance but look to their community as if they have their own instances with their own identity (Figure 1). A single TeSS instance presents multiple tailored registries whose selections of training material are "views" on a global instance. Each community registers, maintains and curates their material for their members in their own virtual space in the common portal environment. We will show merging of the ELIXIR and PaN-Training portals into one managed instance yet presenting these as apparently independent portals with the benefit of shared content. Objective TeSS-X: Metadata exchange (Figure 2) and harvesting is achieved via OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting). The integration of OAI-PMH enables standardized, protocol-based exchange of metadata between TeSS-X instances and external aggregators or repositories. This facilitates automated harvesting and syndication of curated metadata across national, thematic, or institutional boundaries, further aligning the platform with open science infrastructure practices and the EOSC interoperability framework. The mTeSS-X platform is implemented using a modular software stack and provides features such as schema validation, user authentication, and customizable content management workflows. It supports thematic overlays, federated search, and metadata enrichment tailored to both curators and end users. The frontend provides advanced filtering and full-text search to enhance user interaction. The project will reduce fragmentation in training dissemination and provides a sustainable, standards-aligned solution for collaborative knowledge sharing. By promoting decentralized stewardship, adherence to FAIR principles, and community engagement, our project introduces a reusable RDM infrastructure which leads to a more coherent and reusable European training landscape.