As the volume of data being produced by pharma companies, medical centers, and academic organizations continues to rise, the capacity for fully making use of this data is being hampered by a series of limitations. The FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principals are a very powerful initiative which has the potential to significantly increase the value of data sets. The FAIR Data track, which complements the Bio-IT Hackathon, brings together data scientists who are pioneering the use of FAIR data, with specific examples of how its use is enhancing the value of the data for specific applications including, but not limited to, omics, imaging, and clinical trial data.