SCIENCE BFSP CoS | WP6 | M6.1 Discussion forum for multiple biodiversity communities to express their shared needs

BioDiv-FC improves FAIRness assessment of biodiversity data by extending FAIR-Checker with biodiversity-aware profiles and machine-actionable recommendations. Biodiversity communities generate diverse digital resources, including genome-related sample records, specimen and collection objects, and long-term ecosystem datasets, yet generic FAIR assessment tools often do not reflect the metadata practices, identifier schemes, and reuse constraints that shape these resources in real repositories. BioDiv-FC addresses this gap through a community-led process in WP6 that gathers requirements, harmonises expectations, and supports implementation in FAIR-Checker. This report documents Milestone M6.1 under WP6 Activity 2 and Task T1, defined as the provision of a discussion forum for multiple biodiversity communities to express shared and community-specific FAIR assessment needs. During the first project month, we held structured consultations with iBOL, LifeWatch ERIC, eLTER, DiSSCo, and GGBN, while ERGA requirements were documented through project-team expertise and ongoing operational involvement in ERGA data management. Across communities, we identified accessible objects, metadata expectations, identifier practices, machine-readable access routes, and valid exceptions such as embargoes, sensitive data, and incomplete early-stage records. The meetings show that all target communities provide a workable basis for automated FAIR assessment, while also revealing substantial heterogeneity in metadata models and validation expectations. These outputs have been transferred to Task T2 and will be used by the ELIXIR-FR implementation team, with project partners, to prepare test cases and calibrate FAIR-Checker scoring for FAIR and actionable biodiversity assessments.