FAIR Data Podcast

In this episode, Rory and Vaida Plankyte, Product Manager and Design Lead at ResearchSpace, discuss the recent RDA plenary in Salzburg!

Join us for key takeaways, a breakdown of the conference, and a discussion about some of the more illuminating conversations and presentations that took place in this exciting week!

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Watch the webinar on PIDs for Instruments featuring Rory and Vaida, alongside Rolf Krahl and Marcus Stocker:

https://youtu.be/Uru6o5KhdRo?si=H-pfvSRQLTbCi9b1

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The International Science Council’s Committee on Data (CODATA) and World Data System (WDS), and the Research Data Alliance (RDA) held the International Data Week 2023: A Festival of Data, which took place on 23–26 October 2023, in Salzburg, Austria and online.

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Join us for another episode focused on PIDS, featuring Alicia Gómez and Elise Harder.

Alicia recently moved from her role as Head of Scientometrics and Data Visualization at the Vienna University of Technology to IE University as Library Director.

Elise is currently in an on-going role as Head of PIDs at the TU Wien Library.

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From the implementation and uptake of PIDs and PID related services by researchers to the challenges in doing so, Elise and Alicia share their expertise and experience in the realm of PIDs. As the conversation progresses, Rory, Elise, and Alicia, also move to discuss the implementation of PIDs on local, national, and international levels. Join us and learn about organizations and upcoming events that serve to advance the implementation of PIDs!

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Today we have Lina Sitz and Anna Pirani join Rory to discuss some of the interesting issues faced and addressed in their latest project at the IPCC. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
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Starting off with brief introductions, Anna and Lina give us a high-level overview of the IPCC and its role and impact. Anna and Rory also discuss the human resources aspect of their work and how they made their choices regarding team selection and resource allocation and Lina elaborates on some challenges they faced and how they overcame them through guidance and training.
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In addition, Anna mentions some of the infrastructure that supports their work. The pair reflect on some of the lessons they learned along the way and how they helped to refine their workflow and amplify their impact.

Join us to learn more about the relationship between data management and climate change!

This week Rory is joined by Rorie Edmunds, Samples Community Manager at DataCite, for a fascinating conversation focused on the adoption and implementation of PIDs for samples in the form of International Generic Sample Number DOIs (IGSNs).

As a key figure pushing for evolution of the IGSN-DataCite partnership, Rorie has a lot to share regarding developments and challenges. Kicking things off with a high level overview of the partnership, Rorie goes on to mention how it came about, as well as elaborating on goals and issues that the partnership hopes to address.

Given Rorie's role, the conversation naturally shifts to his past and current work, and Rorie mentions his initial focus on liaising closely with current IGSN allocating agents to bring them into the DataCite family and to create IGSN-DOI registration services, including transitioning the current ca. 10 million IGSN IDs, before diving into some factors that attracted Rorie to this position.

As the conversation develops, Rory and Rorie discuss current progress and developments, as well as taking a closer look at both the communities themselves and the ways in which Rorie is getting the word out about the DataCite-IGSN partnership. In addition, Rorie also highlights some of the challenges associated with the adoption of PIDs for material samples and possible solutions.

Join us for the full conversation and learn more about the fascinating and rapidly evolving landscape of PIDs for samples!

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This week on the FAIR Data Podcast, Rory is joined by Gabriela Meijas, Community Manager at DataCite. In her previous role, Gabriela worked for more than five years at ORCID, focusing on community engagement and support. Her responsibilities included driving membership and adoption across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and more recently, within ORCID consortia to help ensure the organization’s sustainability.

Rory and Gabi kick off the conversation with a look at Gabi’s previous and current work, and Gabi shares how her journey led to her current role as Community Manager at DataCite. As the conversation develops, Gabi shares details on current and upcoming projects at DataCite, including the FAIR Impact and Core projects, which aim to implement a FAIR EOSC web of services. Rory and Gabi also discuss the DataCite PIDs graph, which helps to connect research entities with PIDs such as DataCite DOIs, ORCID IDs, and CrossRef DOIs.

Gabi and Rory discuss how researchers can access and make use of such tools and services, and Gabi comments on challenges as well as potential solutions, while providing an overview of how her current work fits in with other services and projects at DataCite aimed to facilitate research sharing and searchability. To conclude, Gabi shares some important developments in the world of PIDs that are likely to take place in the coming years!

Join us for the full episode and discover more about the rapidly evolving world of PIDs as well as Gabi’s journey!

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We are so excited to share this week’s episode featuring Connie Clare, Community development manager at the RDA. Connie previously held a role at the 4TU repository managed by TU Delft in partnership with Eindhoven university, the university of Twente, and Wageningen University.

To kick off the conversation Connie briefly details her role in Community management at 4TU, an international data repository for science, engineering and design disciplines. She mentions the work involved in building the community, which included data stewards, data managers, data trainers, IT support professionals, librarians, research software engineers, and researchers!

As the conversation develops, Rory and Connie discuss the effort to engage with researchers and trying to drive culture change towards better RDM/data practices, and Connie shares her experiences based on connecting on a personal level, through interactions such as sharing success stories, identifying barriers and pain points.

Briefly, Connie shares her background before getting involved in RDM, including her work as a phD researcher in developmental biology at the university of Nottingham, as well as the driving force behind the transition to working at the RDA.

Focusing on recent and upcoming work commemorating the RDA’s 10th anniversary, Connie shares plans for international and regional events, and provides additional details about upcoming events such as the upcoming Plenary in Gothenburg, and events focused on themes such as health and medical data (April), and metadata and technical infrastructure (May). Connie extends an invitation to listeners to get involved in events including workshops, blogs, seminars, podcasts, and more!

Find out more about the upcoming Plenary in Gothenburg:

https://www.rd-alliance.org/plenaries/rda-20th-plenary-meeting-gothenburg-hybrid

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This week on the FAIR Data Podcast, Rory is joined by Michael R. Crusoe, co-founder and project lead of the Common Workflow Language (CWL) project for a special edition of the podcast coming out in conjunction with the 10th anniversary celebration of the RDA, with this month being dedicated to Software!


Find out more about Michael’s work here:  

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2961-9670

The conversation starts with a brief look back at the impetus and events that inspired Michael and guided him on his journey to his role today, providing insight into how a combination of domain specific degree, in microbiology in Michael’s case, and a background in IT can give rise to a non-traditional career and journey. Michael expands on how specific events led to an interest in common workflow language, eventually culminating in his current project: the Common Workflow Language (CWL) project, find out more using the following link:

https://www.commonwl.org

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As the conversation develops, Michael gives us a high-level overview of CWL and provides an update on the current standing and future expectations of the project. Michael mentions that CWL is a free and openly licensed standard that is implemented on the level of the command line and languages such as python, C, ruby, pearl and R.

Rory enquires about the work at EOSC and Michael mentions a few EOSC projects that have benefitted/or will engage with the CWL project. During the remainder of the conversation, Rory and Michael discuss community standards, recent developments in the standards landscape, and ways in which FAIR can be achieved by concerted efforts, and the connection between FAIR, software, and data. Check out the episode to join this fantastic conversation!

Find out more about Workflow Run RO-Crate, a working group for defining RO-Crate profiles for capturing the provenance of an execution of a computational workflow, and join here:

https://www.researchobject.org/workflow-run-crate/

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We are incredibly excited to present this special episode celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), featuring Dr. Sven Bingert and Dr. Tibor Kálmán!

Sven and Tibor are experts in Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) and both at GWDG, a service organization which works in conjunction with the Max Plank Society and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and carries out independent research in the field of computer science.

We kick things off with a high-level overview of the PIDs ecosystem, before diving into the areas of PID development that they are currently focusing on including but not limited to: new projects, community consultation reports, work on data types, and PIDs for instruments.

With such a wide range of involvement, the conversation turns to the initial impetus and journey that led Sven and Tibor to their current interest in PIDs. As well as elaborating on certain aspects of PIDs that interest them, Sven and Tibor provide some background information and context on GWDG, from inception to current activity.

During the remainder of the conversation, Rory, Sven, and Tibor dive into expectations, maintenance of PIDs, structural and support requirements as well as recommendations for ways to get involved and stay up to date with the latest PIDs related developments!

This week Rory is joined by Daniel Bangert, Ireland's National Open Research Coordinator at The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI).

Daniel brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in supporting institutional open access and research data services, as well as contributions to European projects related to open science and research data, including the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Europe and FAIRsFAIR.

Rory and Daniel kick off the conversation with the topic of the National Action Plan. Daniel shares the impetus for the plan as well as some background details regarding the National Open Research Forum (NORF), before providing a brief overview of the major components of the plan.

The pair go on to discuss comparisons and contrasts in activities between Ireland and other countries, and Daniel elaborates on notable aspects across a variety of programs and initiatives. Taking a step back, Rory enquires about Daniel's journey and steps towards getting involved in Open Science. Rory and Daniel go on to talk about the upcoming plenary and work on PIDs, as well as some of the most interesting aspects of development on a national and international level.

Join us for the full episode, and hear about Daniel's work and insights!

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This week, Rory is joined by Sharif Islam, Data Architect for DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections) -- a new pan-European research infrastructure project which involves working with European museums and natural science collections to create a data-driven research infrastructure to mobilise, unify and deliver bio - and geo-diversity information.

With a unique background and prior expertise in supercomputing, Sharif briefly shares his interesting journey and involvement in various projects including the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded 'Blue Waters' petascale supercomputer, which was operated by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and ran science and engineering codes, with significant contributions to innovation in the field.

Speaking on DiSSCo, Sharif shares that according to one estimate there are approximately 1.5 billion samples in natural history museums, botanical gardens, and other institutes, and building a research infrastructure for natural science collections data is a challenge that draws on his past expertise, for example with log management, file management, movement of data, but with major differences in scale.

As well as sharing his current work on DiSSCo, Sharif goes on to mention other projects he is/has worked on, including BIO DT - the effort to create a digital twin for biodiversity related data, and the implementation of FAIR - specifically, going from strategy to action. On the latter topic, Sharif shares his thoughts on the importance of training and metadata, as well as the importance of data stewards and foundations for FAIR implementation.

Join us for the full conversation, which also spans the disconnect between highly technical development in FDO and much broader range of activities related to FAIRifying data, comparative development of FAIR in north america and europe, and Open Infrastructure as a way to enabling FAIR!

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This week, Rory is joined by Frederique Belliard, Publishing Officer at the TU Delft Libraries, for a fascinating conversation spanning several aspects of research sharing and facilitation through the lens of a researcher and publisher!


Frederique describes the impetus and motivations that led her to move from research to publishing following her phD and postdoc work, and shares some of the takeaways from her time as a researcher that compliment her current role. She also mentions some of the key developments that she has observed in the world of academic publishing over the last 15 years.

Rory and Frederique discuss how the shift from printing to digital facilitates traceability and linking to digital objects. Frederique highlights the importance of preserving and sharing research objects from the entire project, and goes on to talk about the focus and scope of her work at TU Delft. She also shares some of the key innovation happening at TU Delft pertaining to fair recognition, amplification and dissemination of research work, and transformation of printed materials to digital copies.

Some of the interesting themes that emerge include open-license/publishing vs commercial vs in-house university presses, deconstruction of publication to give importance to research objects, and the evolution of publishing practices in line with researcher needs.

Join us for the full episode and get to know Frederique and learn about the publisher's perspective on open-sharing and dissemination of research objects and findings, as well as the latest developments in academic publishing!

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This week on the FAIR Data Podcast, Rory is joined by Laurence Horton, Research Data Specialist at the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), for a fascinating conversation covering the latest developments and insights from Laurence's work at the DCC on two new major projects:

1) FAIR IMPACT: designed to enable implementation of FAIR principles for European Open Science Cloud across different scientific research communities and research outputs at a European level, while also focusing on countries and institutions within Europe.

2) Skills for EOSC: training and support for FAIR data-fication in the European Open Science Cloud.

During the conversation, Laurence weaves together insights and the latest developments to present an illustrative account of emerging policies and support for PIDs (Persistent Identifiers), Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), and generalist & domain specific repositories across multiple countries and organizational levels.

Rory and Laurence also discuss FAIR: the good and the bad. Laurence comments on the advent and importance of the CARE principles (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, Ethics) - which bring in the rights of individuals - pertaining to how data is collected and used. Laurence also briefly comments on archives and historical representation among marginalized groups, silenced groups and how data librarians and data stewards may play a role in supporting them.

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Join us for the full conversation and learn about the latest developments and Laurence's work!

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On this episode of the FAIR Data Podcast, we are joined by Rory Macneil, regular host of the FAIR Data Podcast and CEO of Research Space.

Rory recently attended the 1st International Conference of FAIR Digital Objects (FDO2022) in Leiden. This event brought together technical, scientific, industry, and science-policy stakeholders with the aim to boost the development and implementation of FAIR Digital Objects (FDOs) worldwide and transform the Internet into a meaningful data space.

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The FDO2022 conference had four main goals:

To present and discuss the anatomy of a FDO

To showcase FDO-Based studies & implementations

To act as a forum for developing FDO-Based Approaches

To propose solutions to facilitate global adoption of FDOS.

Join us, and learn about the latest developments and insights from Rory's experience at the conference.

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This week on the FAIR Data Podcast, Rory joins Katherine McNeill, Program Director at DataWorks!, for a fantastic discussion spanning the work being conducted at FASEB, ORCID as well as insights from Katy's journey so far. To kick off the conversation, Rory asks Katy about her work at Harvard Business School, where she coordinated the library's research data program. Katy talks about her role there and her collaborative interactions with Julie Goldman and Sonia Barbosa, both of whom are previous guests and representatives from Harvard.

As the conversation develops, Katy goes on to talk about her current role as Program Director at DataWorks! at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). As well as elaborating on other aspects, Katy mentions FASEB’s initiatives to advance open scholarship and build incentives for researchers to engage in data management and sharing practices. Combining her experience in research data management with business acumen derived from her MBA, Katy presents a unique and fascinating approach to the task of enabling researchers to engage with research data management services, activities, and organizations, whilst ensuring those services stay aligned with researcher needs. In one example, Katy advocates for building robust research data management practices (e.g., standardized file formats) into the tools researchers already use to reduce the time and resource costs associated with data sharing. In the rest of the conversation, Katy and Rory go on to talk about the work of ORCID and its upcoming initiatives, the role of Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs), and how PIDs can enable tracking of not only outputs but also research objects throughout the lifecycle.

Join us for this insightful and fascinating discussion!

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This week on the FAIR Data Podcast, Rory is joined by Donny Winston, founder and principal consultant at Polyneme, a software and data consultancy, and host of the Machine-Centric Science podcast!

To kick things off Rory and Donny discuss the academic interests that led to Donny's current interest and expertise in data sharing and management. Donny shares his journey from encountering a fork in the road between nanotechnology and computer science in high school to pursuing a postdoc position at Hewlett Packer labs, and beyond!

With a strong entrepreneurial spirit evident in his achievements, Donny briefly shares some projects he took on and developed in the interim as he found his way to a position he truly enjoyed at Berkeley Lab. This journey of academic passion and technical expertise development eventually led to Donny applying his skills and expertise in the founding of Polyneme, a data and software consulting firm based in New York. Donny goes on to share some of the work that goes on behind the scenes at Polyneme, as well as providing some background on his decision to start the Machine-Centric Science podcast.

In addition, Donny provides insight into his engagement with the community through his role at FAIRpoints in collaboration with previous guests, Dr. Sara El-Gebali and Chris Erdmann, and highlights their upcoming event (Friday, September 30th: FAIRifying Participant Activity) and the conference on fair digital objects in Leiden towards the end of October, where they will be presenting an abstract on publishing fair points, i.e. Training material developed during their events as fair digital objects. To conclude, Rory and Donny also dive into some of the key current and upcoming issues in the fields of FAIR and OpenScience.

Join us for the full conversation!

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This week, Rory is joined by Sonia Barbosa, Manager of Data Curation at the Harvard Dataverse Repository, for a deep dive into Dataverse and the latest developments regarding repositories and facilitation of sharing in the field of research data management!

Rory and Sonia begin this detailed and insightful conversation with a brief look at Sonia's background and how she got started with her interest in research data management in the first place. Sonia takes this opportunity to reflect on her career, and shares how her work led her to her current position, as Manager of Data Curation at the Harvard Dataverse Repository.

To kick off, Sonia shares more about the background and inception of Dataverse, before touching on aspects that led to its success and improved its offerings, such as the robust focus on community. Sonia talks about the importance of establishing trust within the community, and shares examples of the work she did to further support and strengthen relationships with researchers and the wider research community, and goes on to mention opportunities that might interest researchers such as upcoming webinars on data sharing and the use of repositories

As the conversation continues to develop, Sonia and Rory dive into the latest developments as they relate to Sonia's role, going on to talk about the use of Data Management Plans, collaboration between repositories, and the essential task of meeting researchers halfway to encourage use of tools such as the Harvard Dataverse Repository.

Join us for the full conversation and learn about Sonia's role at the Harvard Dataverse Repository, the latest developments and much more!

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This week on the FAIR Data Podcast, Rory Macneil shares experiences and insights from the Netherlands National Open Science Festival, which took place on 1st September 2022, at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam.

The #OSF2022NL was an opportunity to learn more about Open Science practices in research and current policy in the Netherlands.

With a focus on "Open Science in Practice" and "Open Science in Policy", the Festival attracted around 300 participants that attended the plenary sessions led by rector of the VU Jeroen Geurts and Hilde van Wijngaarden, VU library director, with over 400 more joining via the live stream. Attendees also had the opportunity to learn and connect in community led workshops and sessions, and the Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf of Education, Culture and Science visited the Festival to join the conversation about different aspects of Open Science, and to hand over five Open Science Awards to five inspiring Use Cases with a focus on societal engagement.

Join us for the full episode, where Rory shares some of the aspects of the Festival that were exciting and innovative, dives into some of the interesting conversations that took place, and highlights the significance of the #OSF2022NL in relation to the wider Open Science movement in the Netherlands.

Find out more about the festival, and access content here:

https://opensciencefestival.nl/

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This week, Rory is joined by Dr. Nick Garabedian, Group Leader of 'Linked Tribological Data', at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany!

To start off this fascinating and insightful conversation, Nick gives us a high level overview of the field of Tribology, and tells us how Karlsruhe Institute of Technology complements and facilitates his work, enabling him and many other researchers to carry out dedicated work in Applied Materials Science.

Nick shares how he first got involved with FAIR data, and how his work developed as he began incorporating ontologies in order to bridge the gap between vocabularies, electronic lab notebooks and machine learning models. Rory and Nick discuss how this initial project then developed into a formal project funded by the Helmholz MetaData Collaboration. Nick also talks about some of the challenges the team faces when working with ontologies.

Both Nick and Rory will be at the Helmholz Metadata Collaboration Conference 2022! Sign up for a chance to meet them and learn more about Nick's work.

Nick talks about the solution they have developed and began testing, as well as its capabilities and potential applications. With a focus on solutions that are easy for wet-lab researchers to utilize with minimum barriers, Nick goes on to share how his work aims to bridge the divide between computationalists and experimentalists. Join us for the full conversation!

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Enabling Researchers to share and manage their data with ease is one of the top priorities of the Open Science movement, with widespread implications for reproducibility and reliability of data. At the forefront of efforts to make the process easier is the California Digital Library. Their work on the DMPTool platform has allowed researchers to create and manage data more effectively through the use of Data Management Plans.

This week, join Rory and Maria Praetzellis, Product Manager, Research Data Management, at the California Digital Library (CDL)

In this conversation, Maria offers insight into the crucial work of the California Digital Library, which collaborates system-wide with all of the various University of California campuses and research facilities. The scale of their task is staggering, with the University of California contributing to around 10% of the academic research and development activity in the United States. Rory and Maria discuss the scale of the task, and the CDL's vision and approach to tackling some of the complexities associated with it. Among the tools and projects that the CDL is developing is the DMPTool, which allows Researchers to associate, manage and share their data more effectively. Maria gives us some background information on the origin of the DMPTool, its history thus far, and a better look at the CDL's role in the early development of DMPTool.

Another interesting topic in this conversation is the new NIH Data Management & Sharing Policy, which mandates the sharing of data and creation of data management plans, for the purpose of making research data more available and useful. The new policy has already begun to impact how researchers, data librarians, grant officers and research integrity officers are collaborating and is generating growing interest and involvement from Institutions towards DMPTool. Maria shares how data librarians and researchers are preparing for the upcoming policy implementation, and gives us some insight into the activity of the research community in California.

Another key tool that the CDL is developing in order to facilitate sharing is the Dryad Repository, and Maria is currently fulfilling the role of Interim Product Manager for Dryad right now, so she has a fantastic understanding of the project's goals, long term vision and steps being taken towards achieving that vision. That's not all, find out more about the CDL, its projects aimed at improving research data management and sharing practices, and how the research community is collaborating to meet its evolving needs by joining Rory and Maria in this insightful conversation packed full of the latest news, including what developments are likely to occur in the next two to three years in this space!

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Why does getting your data into analysis ready shape have to be such a time consuming process?

How do you overcome computing limitations when working in various countries?

This week, Rory is joined by Hugh Shanahan, Professor at the Royal Holloway University of London, to address some of these questions.

Here at the Fair Data Podcast, where we share perspectives on all things FAIR, some of the questions that Rory and Hugh mention are at the forefront of researcher's minds. As we move from an age of paper records to one where digitilization demands the proper management of data and associated sharing practices, the focus is starting to shift away from stand-alone articles to how we can make better use of all the data that researchers are producing.

In this episode, Hugh brings his unique expertise of bioinformatics and Open Science to the table, and shares his remarkably interesting journey thus far, and how it lead him to his interest in the research data "pipeline" from start to end. Hugh and Rory go on to discuss some of the issues with data analysis and the research workflow that can impede progress and cause frustration for researchers, and how remote computing solutions such as EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) and GOSC (Global Open Science Commons) might be part of the solution. Hugh also mentions challenges associated with designing a training program focused on promotion of FAIR principles, and ultimately how important it is to create networking and training opportunities for data stewards and researchers.

Rory and Hugh discuss some of the work being carried out by national and international organisations with a focus on shifting the paradigm away from closed practices and towards more open and refined research data management and sharing practices.

Join us for the rest of the conversation, and find out more on how the Open Science movement is transforming the way we use data.
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This week, Rory is joined by Dr. Wind Cowles, Director of Research Data and Open Scholarship at Princeton University!

This exciting conversation starts with an enquiry about Wind's unique background and journey! Wind mentions her start as a researcher and how her PhD in cognitive science linguistics eventually lead to her position as a faculty member at the University of Florida, where she was able to better understand the needs, challenges and pressures associated with research. The topic turns towards mentorship and data services at Princeton naturally,  and Wind mentions the inception of the Princeton Research Data Service and how it all started to fit together through collaboration between departments.

Rory asks about the perspective on research computing and services at Princeton, and Wind goes on to mention the support in place for researchers to be able to carry out groundbreaking research, including stewardship initiatives and services. Dr. Cowles elaborates on the new Tiger Data project, which aims to put in a place a comprehensive system that provides scalable storage infrastructure, and mentions the wider goals, challenges, initial inspiration and collaboration involved within the project.

Rory and Wind get down to more intricate aspects including domain-specific needs, sorting of metadata and working with researchers to improve and refine the services provided at Princeton in order to better assist researchers in their workflows. Wind mentions the current state of the project, and some of the needs of the growing team including technical infrastructure that needs to be in place and elaborates on why she thinks this work is important to other institutions and the wider movement to refine and improve research data services across US institutions.

Check out the episode below for the full exciting conversation between Rory and Dr. Wind Cowles!

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This week we take a break from our regular programming to bring you a fresh perspective of the iRODS 2022 User Group Meeting which took place in Leuven, Belgium between July 5th and 8th!

Rory kicks off the discussion by sharing an anecdote regarding the beautiful location in Belgium where the iRODS User Group Meeting took place, before diving into some of the main take-aways from the meeting.

Getting into some of the sessions and themes that he found particularly interesting, Rory mentions the integration of iRODS with other systems, such as Globus, Galaxy and CyVerse, before moving on to projects involving sequencing and other omics data, which have blossomed  in such a remarkably short period of time.

Lastly, Rory shares his thoughts on the University of Maastricht's adoption and incorporation of the CEDAR metadata template generator into iRODS, before rounding off the discussion with some concluding thoughts!

Check out the iRODS website for more info on this open source data management software:

https://irods.org/

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This week, Rory is joined by Andrew Treloar, Director of Platforms and Software at the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)!

Jumping right in, Rory brings up Andrew's talk at the IDCC on his paper which won the best paper award on the topic of reusability of research platforms! Andrew gives us a high level summary, breaking down the key points in an easily digestible fashion.

The focus shifts to the ARDC, and specifically Rory brings up the staggering amount of innovation at the Australian Research Data Commons! Andrew gives us a historical perspective on the ARDC, and goes on to talk about the support the ARDC receives from the Australian government, as well as the necessary engagement with universities to collaborate and improve research data infrastructure and services through particularly relevant and useful projects.

Zooming out of Andrew's insights and role at the ARDC, Rory asks Andrew about the events and motivations that led to his entry into the work of research data management. Andrew shares some of the insights gathered over the years and his interests in a field that continues to evolve at a rapid pace.

Rory and Andrew round off this fascinating discussion with a look at repositories and the likely state of increasingly necessary relationships between national bodies, universities and domain organizations in the next 5 years!

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This week Rory joins Annette Strauch-Davey, Research Data Manager at the Hildesheim University Library!

Before getting into Annette's work, Rory brings up Annette's use of Welsh, German and English, and asks about her time in Wales, as well as the aspects of Welsh Culture and History that Annette found particularly appealing.

Annette talks about how her work at open air museums in Wales influenced the direction of her interests towards digital preservation and Research Data Management. Moving on, she describes her current role at the University Library at the University of Hildesheim, including the role of the RDMO data management plan and the Dataverse repository in the RDM environment at Hildesheim.

Rory asks about Annette's inspiring bottom up approach and Annette goes into her interactions with researchers at the University of Hildesheim and the role advocacy plays in those interactions.

To conclude this brilliant and interesting discussion, Rory and Annette discuss the trends and likely developments in Research Data Management emerging at German universities and libraries, as well as the activity occurring in research consortiums and at the institutional level!

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This week, Rory is joined by Robin Rice, Data Librarian and Head of Research Data Services at the University of Edinburgh!

In this episode, Robin shares her journey, and the events that inspired her eventual trans-Atlantic move to Scotland. She goes on to talk about how the research data management scene has evolved during her time at Edinburgh, and discusses strategies to cope with the continuous need for evolution in the field.

Rory mentions the fascinating grass roots movements blossoming at the University of Edinburgh, and the discussion turns towards how Research Data Support Services collaborate and connect with young researchers to support their activities. Robin goes on to talk about the relationship between good research data infrastructure and management; defining how FAIR initiatives fit in with the efforts of her team.

As talk turns to the efforts and initiatives employed globally, Robin and Rory finish off this fascinating discussion with a look at how the approach employed by the University of Edinburgh compares and contrasts with those seen in North America, Europe and elsewhere!

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This week Rory joins Martin Donnelly, currently serving as Manager, Funder Relations (Open Science) at the Royal Society of Chemistry!

Martin has authored a book chapter on data management planning (in Pryor (ed.) (2012) Managing Research Data, London:Facet), and was co-author of the DCC's original Checklist for a Data Management Plan. He also designed and project managed the first iterations of the DCC's DMPonline tool, and was a founder member of of the US DMPTool consortium.

In this episode, Martin and Rory discuss the DCC, and Martin's involvement as well as the DCC's inception and how it shifted into curation and management. Rory and Martin discuss the importance of proper training and advocacy, and Martin goes into his approach on promoting good data management.

Martin and Rory also discuss the DCC's DMPonline tool, it's inception, and relevancy in today's data driven research practices. Rory enquires about the publisher's point of view and Martin explains how DMPonline and similar tools fit into the workflow process of publishing. To round off this fascinating discussion, Martin and Rory turn to both the past and future, for a comprehensive look at the developments that have revolutionised research data management and what's next in this exciting field!

This week, Rory joins Kazu Yamaji, Professor at the National Institute of Informatics in Japan.

Kazu Yamaji speaks about his background and how he received his Ph.D. degree in Systems and Information Engineering from the Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan, in 2000. From working on the human pupillary reflex initially, Professor Yamaji describes his journey towards his current role and primary research interests include modelling and developing trusted e-science space in order to share and reuse research materials.

Currently Kazu Yamaji serves as the director of a research center for open science and data platforms at the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan. Moving to the topic of the NII, Kazu breaks down the components of the NII Research Data Cloud: The repositories, Publication platform, Discovery platform and Research Data Management Platform.

On the topic of the initial inspiration and inception of the project, Kazu shares how institutional repository activity kicked off in Japan, and developments over the years which contributed to the demands for greater access, leading to initiatives with a focus on providing more scalable solutions and the eventual creation of the components which make up the NII Research Data Cloud.

Join Rory and Kazu for the rest of the conversation, spanning the dynamic and evolving nature of the NII Research Data Cloud, RDM in Australia and Europe, the development of National Research Infrastructure, and more!

This week Allyson Lister, Content and Community Coordinator for FAIRsharing at the University of Oxford, joins Rory for an exciting discussion spanning her role, work on ontologies and semantic data, as well as a world first announcement! More on that in the episode!

This week, the RDA / EOSC Future Domain Ambassadors program goes Live!

In today's episode, Allyson describes her journey and how she got involved in her unique field, and shares some of the motivations and inclinations that led her to pursue her research interests. Rory mentions the Oxford E-Research Centre, and Allyson delves into the focus, involvement and scope of the organisation. Allyson goes into some of the deeply interesting technologies employed, including use of Nvidia GPUs and AI.

Rory brings up the role of Data Stewards at the Oxford E-Research Centre, and Allyson goes on to mention TU Delft's invaluable work, as well as Esther Plomp, a previous guest on the show! Allyson gives us a crash course in semantic data and ontologies, and describes some of the work being done to improve sharing and make data more computationally accessible.

Rory asks about the use of ontologies in connection with research tools, and how to make the connection between them seamless and machine actionable, to better facilitate researcher workflow. Allyson shares some of the practices employed at FAIR Sharing and how ontologies are enabling interoperability, as well as diving into some of the tools and efforts to assist in FAIR assessment.

Allyson describes how her roles integrate and complement each other, and elaborates on FAIR Sharing, it's role and it's purpose, as well as how it fits in with the work conducted at the E-Research Centre. Core among these values is collaboration, and Allyson mentions work conducted in partnership with stakeholders such as GOFAIR, the RDA, and FORCE11. To round off this exciting discussion, Allyson describes some of the exciting work being done and the need to showcase curators and encourage the relationships that have developed in this blossoming field.

This week Rory takes the spotlight and shares his recent experience at the Edinburgh Open Research Conference with us! The EORC took place on the 27th of May, and featured guest speakers, presenters, experts and university staff with an interest and involvement in FAIR data and Open Science.

This week, Rory is joined by Mary Ellen Sloane, who serves as science librarian and associate professor at the Middle Tennessee State University. Mary shares insights from her various roles in libraries over the course of her career, from public services and technology to collection and circulation.

"I saw how much research was changing and how data was going to change libraries and research itself"

Mary and Rory discuss the changes in research and information sharing and their impact on institutions and libraries, with a focus on how librarians provide services to benefit researchers in light of a continuously expanding and changing landscape featuring a diverse ecosystem of tools. In addition, Mary goes on to discuss her incredibly exciting Fullbright project in collaboration with the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda!

Over the course of this project, we'll strive to provide a unique view into the work Mary is carrying out, check out the episode to learn more and stay tuned for further developments!

This week, Rory joins Dr. Kristin Briney, who serves as Biology and Biological Engineering Librarian at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Kristin is especially passionate and exceptionally placed to share insights from her career and current work. Aside from being an author and Open Science advocate, Kristin is involved in the effort to optimise research data management from an institutional perspective.

In this conversation Kristin comments on her thoughts on RDM, and how it has evolved over time. Kristin brings up the interesting notion of the 'selfish data scientist', an individual with a motivation to make their data FAIR compliant in an effort to make it easier for themselves to find, access and use it effectively. Rory and Kristin go on to discuss some of the challenges, issues and opportunities associated with institutional data management and the role that domain specific repositories play. Kristin has a lot to share from her essential role in helping researchers to meet their data needs, head over to the episode to find out more!

We are so excited to welcome Shawn back for another episode for a deeply interesting and current discussion regarding FAIMS and the state of field data collection/management. Given that Shawn has already told us about his past, and how he got to where he is, this discussion launches straight into FAIMS, and its inception.

Shawn talks us through the incredibly valuable experience of his work and it's relation to the ideas and inspiration for FAIMS, as well as some of the key parts of the journey in developing a state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar field data collection platform. As part of this journey, Shawn leads us through some of the intricacies and challenges associated with the development of FAIMS, as well as some of the approaches employed along the way, ranging from traditional academic style to venture start-up style tactics. Rory and Shawn go on to discuss further aspects such as the research papers and articles produced by Shawn's team, as well as considering further challenges and future directions for the project and sharing some interesting anecdotes!

This episode provides valuable and refreshing insight to the world of software development and field data collection; join Rory and Shawn for the full scoop!

Today's guest, Natasha Simons, is Associate Director, Data and Services, for the Australian Data Research Commons, where she collaborates with national and international organizations to solve key issues in an effort to improve research data infrastructure and policy.  Natasha is based at the University of Queenland, in Brisbane, and leads a geographically dispersed team who are passionate about enabling FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and driving a corresponding change in scholarly communication culture. In addition, Natasha is a member of the FORCE11 board, has co-authored a book, and presents regularly at conferences and events.

Natasha starts off with a general outline of the ARDC: it's objectives and various approaches employed in it's effort to support research. She goes on to explain how she got there in the first place, describing her fascinating journey so far, as well as commenting on her current work and role at the ARDC. Rory mentions CSIRO and AARNET, and the talk turns towards collaboration, both on the national and international level.

Moving on, Natasha and Rory dive into the topic of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) and get creative!

Join us for the rest of the conversation, including novel ideas regarding PIDs, Natasha's involvement at FORCE11 and more!

This week Rory joins Esther Plomp! With a PhD studying the unique isotopic composition of human teeth and the story they tell, and an incredibly active involvement both outside and inside the university when it comes to Data management, Esther is perfectly placed to discuss some of the topics at the forefront of Open Science.

In this conversation, Esther and Rory talk about how Esther first got involved with data management, her involvement in various spheres and organisations that aim to promote FAIR data handling, before moving on to more complex issues, such as the divide between Researchers and Research Staff, and the issues it causes when considering different stakeholders, perspectives and motivations of those involved.

Esther goes on to comment on a possible solution: if the divide really is the issue, we need more people who blur the lines. With a perspective of life both as a researcher and a data steward, Esther comments on how individuals that embody and encourage both aspects may be crucial in building the connections that break down the boundaries holding back the transformation of research to incorporate FAIR principles.

This week Rory is joined by two guests! Laura Klinkhamer and Niamh MacSweeney are third year PhD students at the University of Edinburgh, and co-founders of 'Edinburgh ReproducibiliTEA', a grassroots journal club initiative that helps researchers create local Open Science journal clubs at their universities to discuss diverse issues, papers and ideas about improving science, reproducibility and the Open Science movement. Since its inception in early 2018, ReproducibiliTEA has grown to become a worldwide organisation with chapters in 25 different countries at over 106 institutions!

We're excited to dive into how Laura and Niamh got started with their journey into practicing Open Science advocacy and FAIR data principles. Rory, Laura and Niamh discuss factors such as job security which may influence the uptake and practice of Open Science principles as well as the socioeconomic impact of open research policy implementation. The issue of access and institutional support for researchers are interesting topics that arose during this conversation. Laura and Niamh provide some insight into what Open Research and Reproducibility implementation look like in the context of their work as PhD students and founders of 'Edinburgh ReproducibiliTEA', before giving us some exciting details on the 'Edinburgh Open Research Conference', taking place on 27th May 2022 (Link to register below!)

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/edinburgh-open-research-conference-27-may-2022-tickets-294700375757

This week, Rory joins James Hetherington, Director of the Advanced Research Computing Centre at University College London, where he leads us through his rich and varied experiences, from working as a particle physicist who wanted to work in the field, to transitioning to working with data and computational models in life sciences research, working with the creators of MATLAB, and calculating the environmental impact of industrial businesses. James talks about he was an early advocate of good software engineering practice in academic work, and how he's been working with the Alan Turing Institute to bolster their team of data scientists. With such a varied set of experiences, James has a lot to offer when it comes to discussion of FAIR data and it's application, and this conversation certainly moves on to touch on more complex topics such as the divide and connection between data management and researchers, the role of trust in research and data management, as well as touching on interesting developments regarding data stewardship, infrastructure development and academic research initiatives!

This week Rory joins Dr. Ralitsa Madsen, a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at UCL Cancer Institute with a PhD in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease. Ralitsa shares how her development as a scientist lead to a curiosity and passion for open science and high quality data management, as well as offering some insight into her research in cancer and specifically, disease-related PI3K signalling. Moving on, Dr. Madsen expands on some of the challenges of data management and quality control in this domain, and comments on the critical nature of integrated solutions in data management. In addition, Ralitsa recommends 'Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions', by Richard Harris, and discusses some of the drivers of uptake when it comes to FAIR data management principles, and how local champions, institutions and researchers have critical roles to play when it comes to advancing quality data management. Rounding off this fascinating discussion, Rory and Ralitsa discuss some exciting future initiatives and opportunities when it comes to the FAIR-ification of Data!

Rory joins Shawn Ross, Director of Data Science and eResearch at Macquarie University and an Associate Professor of History and Archaeology, for a truly fascinating conversation that spans personal involvement in Data Science and the FAIMS project, Climate change and implications for field research, as well as a focused discussion on national institutions in Australia, including the ARDC, that are promoting FAIR data practices. Finally, Shawn and Rory discuss some of the challenges in translating FAIR initiatives from thought to reality, especially given the complex environment and players involved.

This week Rory joins John Chodacki, who is responsible for overseeing the strategic planning, development, and operational management of the California Digital Library's (CDL) digital curation group, UC3. John has a background in product management within digital publishing and scholarly communications organisations, and is well placed to talk about FORCE11, FAIR data and representing CDL in the global research community.

In this episode, Rory and John discuss how he got involved in data, the role of altruism in the growing FAIR data movement and interesting ethical and governance issues. Finally, they conclude with thoughts on the future of FAIR data, as well as challenges and exciting opportunities to come!

This week Rory is joined by Dr. Sara El-Gebali, who is a Research Data Manager, scientist, feminist and founder of FAIRpoints and OpenCider, as they discuss how a PhD in cancer research and work at EMBL-EBI led to a passion for Open Science and FAIR data!

Sara talks about the origin of FAIRpoints as well as how the work carried out at SciLifeLab, FAIRpoints and other community initiatives is advancing Open Science!

This week: Sarah Jones, EOSC Engagement Manager at GEANT, joins Rory to discuss GEANT's involvement in FAIR and the European Open Science Cloud.

Rory and Sarah continue to discuss how a data commons of interoperable research tools can enhance FAIR!

Sarah sheds light on her own journey in developing an RDM tool - DMPOnline - and transitioning to a broader policy role at GEANT.

This week, Rory meets with Bruce Maas, CIO Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin (UoW), for a brilliant discussion.

Bruce shares key insights including how innovations in Research Computing paved the way for the development of research services.

In addition, Rory and Bruce discuss innovation in higher education research infrastructure, and the central role of empathy in engaging researchers in research services.

Key themes: Research Computing, Higher Education, Research Infrastructure

We are so excited to share this conversation with Chris Erdmann!

Chris is an author, researcher and developer, with a passion for data services, digital libraries and all things FAIR. In fact, Chris is currently the Assistant Director of Data Stewardship at the American Geophysical Union!

Join us, as we converse FAIR data, what it means to Chris, and gain some insight from his unique role in the FAIR Data-verse!

In our inaugural episode Rory is joined by Julie Goldman, who serves as the Countway Research Data Services Librarian for the Harvard Library Research Data Management Program. From the ongoing development of research data management at Harvard medical school to JeSLIB (The Journal of eScience Librarianship), join Rory and Julie as they discuss all things FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

We're so excited to be launching the FAIR data podcast on Wednesday 16th February! Here's a quick word on what you can expect.