Click here for the collaborative notes session

At the last plenary (P20) we organized an initial session (The Way to FAIR: from data collection to citation) bringing together speakers with expertise in instrument development and integration of metadata collection to instrumentation across a range of scientific disciplines. There was significant participation in the session indicating a strong interest in furthering this work. 

In this Birds of a Feather (BoF) session we build on the growing community focused on supporting the researcher with “making data FAIR” by expanding to include the role of instruments in this process. This BoF will discuss current work on the challenges and opportunities within the community of instrument manufacturing and the configuration of instruments and their networks, and how RDA can support this community, with the goal of incorporating FAIR principles into data collection at the earliest possible stage. This enables researchers to more easily compile accessible, meaningful metadata to accompany their datasets, making the data from a broad type of instruments more FAIR. 

The BoF Session is the next step toward starting a new Interest Group focused on making data as FAIR as possible from instruments, their configurations, and their networks. This IG extends the work of the RDA Persistent Identification of Instruments WG in conjunction with the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model (FDMM) WG.  

By focusing on the data from instruments we can help improve elements of FAIR at the earliest stage of research (data collection) while the potential of enhancing and developing common standards of the metadata associated with instrumentation during data measurement and collection.

Our invited speakers will share current projects working on these objectives and expertise in instrument development and integration of metadata collection to instrumentation across a range of scientific disciplines to speak to challenges and opportunities in this area. The plenary will begin with presentations (15 min) from each speaker, followed by a moderated panel discussion. Building on our discussion from the previous meeting, we continue to explore the challenges facing data collection ranging from the bench scale (chemical and biological sciences) to complex global monitoring networks (often employed in earth and environmental sciences disciplines ranging from oceanography to atmospheric science).  

Agenda: 

• 0 – 5 min: Keith Russell – Introduction and Background on FDMM WG Activities
• 5 – 10 min: Kristina Vrouwenvelder – Recap of RDA P20 Joint FDMM and PIDINST Session
• 10 – 25 min: Louise Darroch – Overview of PIDINST WG Work (10 min) and Q&A (5 min)
• 25 – 40 min: Matt Mayernik – NSF FAIR Facilities and Instruments RCN (10 min) and Q&A (5 min)
• 40 – 65 min: Discussion Breakout Groups: Moderated Q&A and Charter Draft 
  • Topic 1: Suggested 10 min discussion 
  • Topic 2: Suggested 10 min discussion
  • Charter (Topic 3) 5 min discussion
• 65 – 85 min: Report Out (5 min each group), Wrap-up, and Next Steps
• 85- 90 min: FDMM adoption stories (KR)

At the last plenary we organized an initial joint session (The Way to FAIR: from data collection to citation) bringing together speakers with expertise in instrument development and integration of metadata collection to instrumentation across a range of scientific disciplines. There was significant participation in the session indicating a strong interest in furthering this work. This session was sponsored by the RDA Persistent Identification of Instruments WG in conjunction with the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model (FDMM) WG.  

Following the plenary meeting, we began the process of submitting a charter for a new FAIR Instrument Data IG to gather names of those interested.