On the 29th of November 2022 both Research Data Netherlands (RDNL) and the National Programme Open Science (NPOS) hosted the FAIR Data Day with the theme – ‘reusing data to advance science’.
Research Data Netherlands (RDNL) is a national coalition consisting of 4TU.ResearchData, Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), SURF and Dutch Techcentre for Life Science (DTL). Together with the National Programme Open Science (NPOS), they focus on strengthening the scientific research domains within the Netherlands by stimulating sustainable archiving, implementation of FAIR principles and overall reuse of research data. The FAIR Data Day focused on gathering or uniting research data steward community’s and to celebrate FAIR data progression in the Netherlands. It was a marvelous event that was bustling with people and filled with inspiring keynote speakers, community-led workshops, thought-provoking discussions, overjoyed prize winners and an overall vibrant atmosphere.
The first part of the program started in morning with an inspiring opening talk from Dr. Shalini Kurapati (CEO of clear clearbox-AI) on Synthetic Data, followed by an interactive session of Dr. Barry Fitzgerald (BW Science) on the future of reusing data. It didn’t take long before the whole community was actively asking questions, answering Mentimeter polls on their phones, participating in an open discussion or throwing paper planes at the stage in an attempt to elaborate their answers to questions such as: “What does reuse of data mean to you?, How would you want to be credited for your reused data? or How do we help Tony Stark best manage data collated & created?”. The morning program was concluded with Dutch Data Prize elevator pitches, showcasing commendable examples of good data management as presented by the top nine nominees.
The second part of the program took place in the afternoon and was filled with seven different workshops on FAIR training & capacity building within research organisations, publishing FAIR datasets, metadata across disciplines, access & management of sensitive data and how to support early career scientists.
Workshops:
- Drylab 101 | Make data management exciting for research-performing organisations: increase your employability rate and build capacity by Xenia Perez Sitja (University of Bradford), Sara Morsy (University of Bradford) & Saskia Lawson-Tovey (University of Manchester).
- Open Educational Resources for FAIR training – Inventory of materials and needs by Ronald Cornet (AMC), Martijn Kersloot (AMC) & Mijke Jetten (DTL & Health-RI).
- How-to create and publish FAIR research datasets directly from your research environment by Serkan Girgin (University of Twente), Manuel Garcia Alvarez (TU Delft), Jose Urra Llanusa (TU Delft) & Kees den Heijer (4TU.ResearchData).
- FAIR on the spot, geospatial metadata across disciplines, how do we make them fit? by Jandirk Bulens (WUR) & Cees Hof (DANS)
- Harmonising Access Procedures for Sensitive Data by Wim Hugo (DANS), Ricarda Braukmann (DANS) & Jorik van Kemenade (SURF).
- Bristol fashion: Lessons learned through 7 years of sensitive data release by Kirsty Merrett (University of Bristol)
- Bridging the gap: Supporting early career scientists to make their data FAIR by Lisa Oskam, Marije Sluiskes, Lotte Weedage & Karonlina La Fors (PNN)
The third part of the program started with an exciting keynote talk by Dr. Nadia Bloemendaal (VU & Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York) on tropical cyclone risk data. Afterwards, Dr. Peter Doorn gave an speech on the importance of competition and awarding good data practice with initiatives such as the Dutch Data Prize. He was completely overtaken by surprise when, unbeknownst to him, he was invited to receive a royal distinction for his own role in the development of digital research infrastructures for the humanities in the Netherlands. More festivities followed when Drs. Caroline Visser (NWO, Chair of the Dutch Data Prize jury), announced the winners of the Dutch Data Prizes who all received a trophy, flowers and a 3,500 EUR cheque for their FAIR data set. She explained that the jury had an incredibly difficult task of choosing one winner for each domain from a record number of 51 nominations received and explained that the jury was impressed by the overall quality of the submissions. The winners of the Dutch Data Prize 2022 where the: “DNA Barcodes for fungal identification” dataset by Duong Vu and her team, who developed a database of over 24k fungal species (Life Sciences and Health); the “YOUth” dataset presented by Coosje Veldkamp and her team, which included a study that followed the neurocognitive development of nearly 4,000 Dutch children from pregnancy until early adulthood (Social Sciences and Humanities) and the “Materials in Paintings (MIP)” dataset from Mitchell Van Zuijlen and his team, which used machine learning algorithms to classify fragmented pieces of 19,000 paintings (Natural and Engineering Sciences). The day was finally concluded with an networking event that provided ample opportunity to meet likeminded peers within the FAIR data community.
With an international audience of over 250 registered participants, more than 20 submitted workshop proposals and over 50 nominations for the Dutch Data Prize, it was a truly community-led event. We are extremely grateful to all the attendees, keynote speakers, workshop providers, Dutch Data Prize jury members and nominees for a splendid day. This day would not have been possible without all these contributions. We also want to particularly thank the programme committee, organising committee and our colleagues, who all helped and worked very hard to turn this day into a success.
– By Kimberley Zwiers
Want to know more about the FAIR Data Day? More information can be found here: