Untangling FAIR Implementation in the Dutch SSH: the technical perspective

This report is aimed at describing technical arrangements that can be used in FAIR data management within the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) domains, but is also informative for other scientific disciplines. 

Examples of technical arrangements are services, tools and standards that are available to make data more FAIR, or to “FAIRify” data. The FAIR Implementation Profile (FIP) forms the basis of the activities carried out. The FIP can be used to formalise FAIR implementation choices in the SSH domain.

The FIP is an excellent way to assess how a community applies the FAIR data principles. The FIP mini-questionnaire is an accessible tool for obtaining an initial overview of the FAIR enabling resources that formalize the FAIR principles and reveal where there are gaps. Formulating the community for which the FIP is relevant (the FIC, the FAIR Implementation Community) is less straightforward. It is challenging to formulate this in an unambiguous way. The FIP is part of the broader FIP Ecosystem, and understanding and determining its value for a specific community, organization, or service requires time and consultation. In any case, it can be concluded that a FIP can help to untangle the technical implementation of the FAIR principles in various ways. 

The activities are carried out in relation to the project “Untangling FAIR Implementation in the Dutch Social Sciences and Humanities” funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) via the Thematic Digital Competence Centre Social Sciences & Humanities (TDCC-SSH). The Untangling FAIR project has also created an “Action Plan towards FAIR implementation in the Dutch Social Sciences and Humanities” (Maineri, et al. 2026). The target audience of this report are policymakers, data stewards and researchers that are involved in activities to make or use FAIR data.

In the project practical work was done to create FIPs for communities in the SSH. It turned out that determining for which community (FIC) a FIP is relevant was not trivial. Four use-case were selected. Defining a FIC in general terms in an initial phase for the use-cases is not too difficult, but defining the FIC in a clear unambiguous way requires quite some effort. This is illustrated in this report. Eventually for one FIC (DANS Data Station SSH Managers) a detailed and extended FIP is created with the goal to act as a reference for all relevant FAIR aspects for this community. As standards and services that support the FAIR principles will continue to evolve in the future (with existing standards changing and new ones emerging), the FIP provides an overview of the state of affairs at a given point in time.