Doing FAIR data management is now easier for Norwegian life science researchers

The ELIXIR Norwegian e-Infrastructure for Life Sciences (NeLS) and the FAIRDOM/SEEK platform are now linked. This will provide SEEK and NeLS users with unprecedented opportunities for storing, sharing, and archiving of data in ways that comply with the FAIR principles.

ta Management (DM) is an increasingly important skill for researchers across all disciplines. Often researchers will be asked to produce a Data Management Plan (DMP) as part of a funding application and be required to share data during or at the end of a project. Project specific DMPs should be in accordance with the relevant standards and best practice. The RCN now demands all new projects to make and follow a DMP according to the FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability). The active use of DM is highly promoted and supported in the Centre for Digital Life Norway (DLN). Towards this aim, DLN has organized data management workshops and practical trainings on data management tools. Nationally, the Norwegian ELIXIR node develops and supports NeLS (Norwegian e-infrastructure for Life Sciences, https://nels.bioinfo.no/). Many of the DLN projects have been using of the FAIRDOM/SEEK platform (https://fairdomhub.org/), that is particularly adapted towards systems biology. SEEK uses the ISA format to structure the data and metadata. In this Investigation/Study/Assay hierarchy, different experiments (assays) that are part of a study (e.g. the collection of experiments for a paper) can have attached assets such as data, protocols (referred to as Standard Operating Proceedures, SOPs) and data analysis such as model fitting to the data.

DLN has supported an integration of the two platforms together with ELIXIR Norway and the FAIRDOM community. The new releases will make DM and long-term storage for Norwegian project leaders and collaborators easier, e.g. by solving issues of using omics data in system biology/ medicine type project to support FAIR data and model management. Several Digital Life projects have participated in testing of the new versions of integration.

FAIR data management of non-sensitive data is now easier to do for Norwegian life scientists by combining features of NeLS and SEEK, allowing access to Norwegian infrastructure for storage, computing and archiving of research data as well as a rich toolbox for FAIR project data management. Data and metadata about samples can be imported into SEEK from the NeLS portal; users who have access to NeLS are able browse datasets in the NeLS Browser. Once a suitable dataset is identified it can be imported into SEEK. Data/metadata can easily be shared among the project participants and made accessible when they are ready for publication (Fig2).


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Rune Kleppe

E-mail: Rune.Kleppe@uib.no

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By Rune Kleppe
Published June 25, 2018 1:50 PM - Last modified Oct. 8, 2020 1:39 PM