Slides – Alex Henderson – Open Research Conference 2024

Slides used by Alex Henderson for the University of Manchester Open Research Conference 2024

Title: FAIRSpectra: Enabling the FAIRification of Spectroscopy and Spectrometry

Abstract: There is a growing requirement for data to be shared openly. This is now mandated by funding agencies including UKRI, Horizon, Wellcome and equivalent organisations around the world. Sharing data means that files must be readable by others, perhaps using different software packages, and their contents understood, ideally by machines in addition to humans. This latter aspect is ‘machine actionability’.

The FAIR Guiding Principles – that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable – are now recognised to be one of the cornerstones of Open Research. Organisations such as ELIXIR and the Research Data Alliance have published materials on how to generate FAIR data, but there remains an operational gap between these recommendations and how one should actually go about the task on the ground.

FAIRSpectra’s role is to open a discussion about what the chemical analysis field requires in terms of file format support, and specifically the imaging modalities of spectroscopy and spectrometry. It aims to tackle issues with interoperability and reusability. This has been broken down into two areas of activity: open file formats and metadata vocabulary.

This presentation will cover what currently exists, what is still required, and offers an invitation to all interested parties to get involved, share expertise, and become part of the solution.