The modern practice of research generates massive amounts of raw data, metadata, and data products. Making research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) is essential to verify and build on previous research findings and to optimise the reuse of research data.
At first glance you may ask why international research networking programs like the U.S. NSF’s AccelNet programme and Europe’s COST Actions would be so interested in the topic. These programs are unique because they fund international networking activities, not research. But research networks collect, manage, use, analyse, and visualise huge amounts of data. As such, data management is a critical component of a successful research network. By ensuring that data is properly collected, stored, and shared, researchers can conduct high-quality research that is transparent and reproducible.
International research networks can involve hundreds of researchers and innovators from all over the world. Despite recognition of the importance of good research data practices, data sharing at international level is met with fundamental barriers such as variation in regulations, practices, and infrastructure. This can have significant implications for data protection and research security while also hindering the collaborative process.
As part of the Science Summit at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79), COST is co-organising a session with the U.S. National Science Foundation’s AccelNET Program in New York. Save the date of 23 September for this collaborative hybrid event on ‘Hurdles to International Science Cooperation: Data Sharing & Management‘. In preparation of the event we learn from four COST Actions about the challenges they face in their respective research fields, how they address them, the importance of global collaboration, and if there are innovative solutions on the horizon:
SEADDA: saving European archaeology from the digital dark age
“Archaeology faces several challenges, distinct from those encountered in other domains. For example many forms of archaeological research (including excavation) destroy the cultural resource, and the recorded observations become the primary record, derived from non-repeatable documentation. Archaeological data is often born digital, and there are no paper surrogates for the primary record derived, for example, from the use of hand-held computers on-site, geophysical surveys, or logging of experimental data by analytical laboratory equipment.
SEADDA greatly increased international awareness across the domain about the loss of primary archaeological data; that the archaeological record, in digital form, is at risk not simply from obsolescence and media failure, and is largely comprised of non-repeatable research. SEADDA raised awareness and made this issue a topic of conversation at every scale; from the most influential academic conferences to the individual archaeologist working for a national heritage agency in a single country. We also built a strong and inclusive network and created a sustainable outlet for ongoing progress and collaboration in the form of the ARIADNE Research Infrastructure.”
Dr Holly Wright – Grant Awarding Coordinator – SEADDA
INTEGRAPE and GRAPEDIA: an innovative portal to integrate knowledge, resources and services for the grape scientific community and industry
“In our field, viticulture, Europe is the driving force, but our international partners generate at least as much data as we do. So for each standard it is crucial that everybody uses them and even participates in their conception.
The main challenge we are facing is poor description of the metadata associated with experiments and samples, for any kind of dataset. Thanks to the COST Action INTEGRAPE, experts in each field worked together to define FAIR standards for adequately characterizing metadata associated with datasets both for the areas of phenotyping data and genomics data. Now the challenge that we are facing is giving visibility to these guidelines and providing access to data for researchers and stakeholders which is why we have developed the GRAPEDIA portal.“
Jerome Grimplet – Management Committee Member for Spain – INTEGRAPE & GRAPEDIA
Goodbrother: increasing the awareness on the ethical, legal, and privacy issues associated to audio- and video-based monitoring
“A major challenge within the realm of Active and Assistive Living (AAL) technologies research and development is obtaining datasets with videos and audio of older people in private and semi-private environments, as privacy concerns make individuals reluctant to share these data. Without access to high-quality datasets, researchers and developers cannot advance the technology because high-quality training data is a precondition to building and refining the AI models that power AAL solutions. Security and interoperability across different systems and jurisdictions are other pressing obstacles.
Collaborating with researchers beyond Europe is essential for developing reliable AAL applications, as societal and cultural perceptions of privacy vary significantly across countries. With global collaboration we can address these diverse privacy concerns, ensure adherence to international standards, and create trustworthy AAL technologies that cater to the needs of users across different regions.
Goodbrother has focused on developing new methods to enhance visual privacy, secure data sharing, and create interoperable standards. Our Action aims to implement advanced privacy protection measures to safely record and share datasets, accelerating the development of robust AAL solutions and fostering stronger international cooperation in our research efforts.”
Prof. Liane Colonna – Vice Chair – Goodbrother
3DForEcoTech: developing general protocols and algorithms for forest ecosystem and forest functioning
“We are in the middle of a revolution in the field of forest research and it is extremely exciting. We have incredible new technologies such as lidar, drones, and photogrammetry. Additionally, the processing revolution is ongoing, mainly regarding machine and deep learning, providing the possibility to process larger and larger data every day. The research is in a little strange position when you have new excellent technologies, but you are not sure how to use them and whether they have a part in the research or practice within forest ecosystems but we believe these it will help us understand the forest more deeply.
With such new data, we need to work on algorithms that are dedicated to very complicated forest ecosystems. One of the complications is that the forest is highly variable in structure across the globe. So the application of these technologies and algorithms must also vary. To create a robust machine learning model, you need to have massive data collection. To have data of such magnitude, the research community has to join forces.
3DForEcoTech is conducting multiple data calls, one for example is focusing on tree species classification where we have collected more than 20 thousand individual 3D trees from across the globe. When we are running data calls, we try to motivate researchers from outside Europe to cover other forest ecosystems and we would be very happy to have a better reach outside of Europe.“
Dr Martin Mokroš – Action Chair – 3DForEcoTech
This article was first published on 9 September by COST.
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