Turning FAIR into reality: Final report and action plan from the European Commission expert group on FAIR data

Abstract

To take advantage of the digital revolution, to accelerate research and to engage the power of machine analysis at scale while ensuring transparency, reproducibility and societal utility, data and other digital objects created by and used for research need to be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). Helping to achieve this by advancing the global Open Science movement and the development of the European Open Science Cloud is the unambiguous objective for this report. This document is both a Report and an Action Plan for turning FAIR data into reality. It offers a survey and analysis of what is needed to implement FAIR in a broad sense1 and it provides a set of concrete recommendations and actions for stakeholders in Europe and beyond. FAIR requires key changes in the practice and culture of research and the implementation and normalisation of certain technologies and practices.