Organizing biological and biomedical data for sharing and reuse – the ambition of Open Research Data – is at the core of SIB’s activities. From coordinating data in pan-European health projects according to the FAIR principles, to teaching life scientists how to build their Data Management Plan, discover a selection of our projects and dedicated expertise, including Data Stewardship.
While most researchers see the value of making their data open and aligned with FAIR principles, they generally lack the time, skills, and human or technical resources to achieve this. Data Stewards are multidisciplinary experts who use skills in IT, coordination, data management, and curation to help scientists make their data accessible and reusable. These are the premises of Open Research Data (ORD), a component of Open Science. Because of their role in bringing together researchers within and across different research fields and institutions, Data Stewards need to be linked up and to work together at the national and international level.
The essential skills of a Data Steward
Over the years, SIB has led and contributed to a range of national and international work towards Open Research Data. Examples include:
- SIB acts as Data Coordination Centre in numerous international public-private partnerships as part of the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI, previously IMI), harmonizing data and implementing FAIR principles across projects tackling cancer, diabetes and obesity;
- It contributed to the development of the ELIXIR RDMkit, an online guide containing good data management practices applicable to research projects throughout the data lifecycle, and the FAIR cookbook to bring these practices into reality;
The RDMkit, an online guide of good data management practices
- It is co-leading two work packages as part of the ELIXIR-CONVERGE project, whose aim is to help standardize life science data management across Europe: one around training and capacity building and one around SARS-CoV-2 genomic data sharing;
- SIB teams regularly teach and assist life scientists with their Data Management Plan, and have developed a canvas generator together with the Swiss Data Life-Cycle Management" (DLCM) project;
- Open Science database and software tools are aligned with best practices for data integration and FAIR principles, to ensure maximum impact for researchers using them (article in Briefings in Bioinformatics);
- SIB has successfully established the BioMedIT network (see infographics) and the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) as FAIR, sustainable national infrastructure enabling responsible sharing of health data for research purposes.
Making health-relevant data available, interoperable and shareable for research (read factsheet)