[Bridget Walker]

Motivation: Since the completion of the Human Genome Project, we have witnessed an explosion of datasets annotating particular locations along reference DNA sequences with e.g. aspects of functional processes. Tremendous amounts of research funding have been provided to large and small projects that have generated genomic annotation datasets. Many of these datasets relate to human genomes, but an increasing amount of such data is also generated for other model organisms – and with the recent surge of biodiversity projects – for a range of species spanning the whole tree of life. Unfortunately, researchers who want to make use of such data face practical challenges in discovering and reusing datasets relevant to their research. While many repositories and data distribution solutions exist, the metadata is often poorly aligned with best practices for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) research data1. Even in cases where proper metadata exists, relevant solutions typically provide metadata according to different metadata models and APIs.

Discussion