The Challenges of Implementing and Operationalising the CARE Principles

Since 2016, the implementation of the FAIR Principles encouraged re-thinking how data are managed, particularly regarding Indigenous communities which, due to the processes of colonisation, had very little impact on their knowledge and data. Hence, in 2018 the CARE Principles were drafted with the aim to tackle past injustices and support Indigenous communities in governing their data. However, the CARE implementation has not been straightforward as researchers, information experts and Indigenous Peoples faced many challenges starting from the lack of IT infrastructure, skills, funding and metadata. Hence, successful implementation of the CARE Principles requires significant financial and human resources.

It has been six years since the CARE principles were published. The aim of this paper is to analyse the obstacles of implementing them, whilst arguing that the process is one of the biggest contemporary challenges in data curation and the best solutions will eventually be found. The second part of this paper will address these challenges in the UK by analysing data collected in autumn of 2025 from the DataCite UK consortium members and the webinar guest speakers.