RDA TIGER at the 22nd Plenary

During the 22^nd RDA Plenary in May 2024, we enjoyed over 80 sessions organised by RDA Working Groups, Interest Groups, and Communities of Practice. The Groups presented a range of impressive outputs and proposals, all with the joint aim of promoting data-sharing and data-driven research. But how does the RDA support our Groups as they undertake important work on behalf of the organisation? 

One of the ways that Working Groups (WGs) within the Research Data Alliance are supported is through the RDA TIGER project (Research Data Alliance facilitation of Targeted International working Groups for EOSC-related Research solutions). RDA TIGER, launched in 2023, provides a range of support services for WGs within RDA, to help them meet their goals and contribute to RDA’s mission. 

Eleven TIGER-supported WGs or WGs in the making were in action at VP22! Read on for an overview of the sessions that took place, and how RDA TIGER services are accelerating RDA WGs towards success. 

Led by CJ Woodford and Lauren Maxwell, co-chairs of this Working Group in the making, this session aimed to introduce the GORC model in the Health Data Commons space. With the help of RDA TIGER Facilitators, the group chairs gathered participant feedback on the WG’s Case Statement (proposal to become an RDA WG) and input on the group’s key stakeholder map. 

The participant discussion focused on identifying effective strategies to engage with key stakeholder groups and health infrastructures, with a particular emphasis on involving smaller-scale organisations that may not be highly advanced in the field but could offer valuable insights. There was also a recognition of the importance of engaging stakeholders beyond the health domain and exploring intersections with other data commons.

Get involved!: The next steps identified included finalising the draft of the case statement, further enriching the mapping of potential relevant stakeholder groups, and recruiting co-chairs and members to join the WG. Are you interested in helping the WG with their goal? Contact Group co-chairs Lauren Maxwell (lauren.maxwell@uni-heidelberg.de) and CJ Woodford (c.joseph.woodford@gmail.com).

Small uncrewed aircraft (sUAS, also known as drones, remotely piloted aircraft or uncrewed aerial vehicles) and Autonomous platforms have become important tools for collecting data from the environment. This session introduced the Small Uncrewed Aircraft and Autonomous Platforms Data WG (Case Statement currently open for Community Review), which aims to produce recommendations for data and metadata coming from sUAS and autonomous platforms to support interoperability data reuse.

Supported by RDA TIGER facilitators, the presenters gathered feedback from attendees on the challenges they face in connection with uncrewed aircraft vehicle (UAV) data. These discussions will serve as a basis for a survey the WG will launch in the coming months to better understand the needs of the community. 

Get Involved! The Case Statement for the sUAS and Autonomous Platforms WG is open for Community Review until 10 June 2024. RDA members are invited to give their feedback. 

The session focused on sourcing community feedback on the WG’s Case Statement, which is projected to be submitted for Community Review by the end of June.

Co-chairs Lauren Maxwell and Wim Hugo started by asking participants to define “repository”, which highlighted a lack of clear definition. The co-chairs then presented the background and rationale for the WG and focused on specific sections of the case statement for community input. The key discussion points focused on the scope of certification, formal criteria that apply to technical service providers vs repositories, informal assessment criteria, appraisal vs assessment, the value of assessment for end-users, and software trustworthiness. 

Get Involved! Join the WG and keep up to date with all news, including updates on the Case Statement, on the WG page. 

This Birds of a Feather session by the FAIR Mappings WG was framed around a pair of questions; “where do we start?” and “where would we like to go?”. To answer the former, co-chairs Yann Le Franc and Joonas Kesäniemi spoke about the overlapping concerns of the FAIR-IMPACT and FAIRCORE4EOSC projects and how their respective focus on interoperability of semantic artefacts gave rise to the motivation for the FAIR Mappings WG. 

The discussion was then opened up to participants, who delved into some of the more technical aspects of the WG’s aim, including the structure of its planned knowledge base and the aspects of the mappings to be included in the WG’s ontology.

Get Involved! Think you could contribute to the work of the FAIR Mappings WG? Get in touch with the group co-chairs.

The Building Immune Digital Twins WG is currently under Technical Advisory Board review. The WG ultimately aims to build transatlantic bridges that bring experts together to integrate digital twins into clinical practice, with the end goal of benefiting patients. 

The session, led by Anna Niarakis, WG co-chair, focused on introducing the concept of Immune Digital Twins (IDT), outlining the roadmap of activities proposed by the WG co-chairs, and highlighting the main challenge of engaging and collaborating with key stakeholder groups, including clinicians, biomedical experts, mathematicians, and engineers.

Participants discussed ethical questions and concerns related to IDT, noting the varying outlooks and requirements across Europe and beyond.

Get Involved!: The next steps include concentrated efforts to reach out to all key stakeholder groups identified to realise the WG aims.Learn more about the WG and join the discussion by becoming an active member here.

The Harmonised Terminologies and Schemas for FAIR Data in materials science and related domains Working Group held its official kick-off at VP22. The WG’s mission is to promote the adoption of FAIR Data Principles in Chemical and Materials Research by:

Speakers and participants engaged in a lively discussion, delving into the distinctions between FAIR data and FAIR Semantic assets, focusing on trying to define what makes semantic assets findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

Get involved!: The two kickoff sessions supported by RDA TIGER culminated in an open call for participants to actively join the WG and participate in the work of the Streams focused on collecting, reviewing and a FAIR maturity assessment of existing semantic artefacts and identifying best practices for materials science practitioners. Join the WG and participate in the co-creation of its outputs.

During this session we witnessed the launch the new working group “Wind Energy Community Standards”, which was endorsed earlier in 2024. The goal of the WG is to reduce data management overhead within and between organisations working with wind energy. This will be done by firstly creating a recommendation “Guidelines for improving FAIR data maturity in wind energy in practice”. This will then be used to create a wind energy FIP – FAIR Implementation Profile (a methodology developed within the GO FAIR initiative). The FIP will give the scientific and research communities the opportunity to express their choices of standards, technologies, tools and procedures by which they fulfil the FAIR principles.

Get Involved! The Wind Energy Community Standards WG needs your energy! Join them.  

With their Case Statement completing Community Review in the weeks leading up to VP22, this was the first official introduction to the FAIRification of Genomic Annotations Working Group.  

A series of lightning talks gave an overview of the planned outputs and activities of the WG. Attendees then delved into the WG’s workplan and an open discussion on possible connections that could be made with other RDA Groups or third-party initiatives. 

Participants emphasised the need to align the WG’s work with existing repository requirements, genomic standards being developed by other initiatives, and the consideration of the ethics of working with genomic data when devising annotation standards and policies. 

This session provided an update on the progress of the RDA / CODATA Data Systems, Tools, and Services for Crisis Situations WG, celebrated achievements, and invited interested parties to join.

Three targeted lightning talks kickstarted discussions on bridging the gap between policy makers and data scientists during crisis. Steven Riley presented the policy maker perspective, Burcak Badbug shared insights from a data scientist’s viewpoint, and Jacqueline Stephens offered perspectives from those directly involved in crisis situations (‘person on the ground’).

Participants emphasised the importance of reliable and dynamic data for effective crisis response and highlighted the role of collaboration and preparation between policy makers and data scientists.

Get Involved! The next steps of the WG include the dissemination of a survey (aided by RDA TIGER services) to collect and identify the use of and challenges of data systems, tools and services in times of crisis. Interested parties are invited to join the WG and contribute in the mapping of key stakeholder groups to be reached for dissemination.

The Global Open Research Commons Interest Group (GORC IG) is working on a set of deliverables to support coordination amongst national, pan-national and domain specific organisations as they work to build the interoperable resources necessary to enable researchers to address societal grand challenges. The GORC International Model WG’s goal was to evaluate and recommend a model for attributes for global research commons that allows researchers and developers to coordinate services and create roadmaps for international interoperability. The GORC International Model (V1.0) and accompanying report were endorsed by RDA in October, 2023.

This session focused on an open discussion around the next steps to promote the GORC International Model and to encourage its adoption. 

Get Involved! Join the GORC International Model WG.