Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ENVRI-FAIR (ENVironmental Research Infrastructures building Fair services Accessible for society, Innovation and Research)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-06-30
European Environmental Research Infrastructures (ENVRIs) on the ESFRI level are core facilities for providing data, research products and services from the four subdomains of Earth system science – Atmosphere, Marine, Solid Earth, and Biodiversity/Terrestrial Ecosystems. They play a crucial role in delivering essential European contributions to the integrated global observation system for monitoring the state of the Earth. This group of 14 research and data infrastructures has established the ENVRI cluster to streamline their collective initiatives. The ENVRI community extends beyond the operational research infrastructures of the ENVRI cluster and includes initiatives which have not yet developed into matured RIs.
The primary objective of ENVRI-FAIR was to enhance the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIRness) of digital assets, especially research data, products, and services provided by the ENVRI cluster. In addition, it attempted to establish connections between these assets and the emerging service ecosystem of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). ENVRI-FAIR focused on the development and implementation of technical frameworks and policy solutions to promote permeable subdomain boundaries for environmental scientists, preparing Earth system science for the emerging Open Science paradigm. ENVRI-FAIR has been instrumental in establishing the ENVRI-Hub, an open-access platform aimed at fostering collaboration and co-creation within the ENVRI community and beyond.
The primary objective of ENVRI-FAIR was to enhance the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIRness) of digital assets, especially research data, products, and services provided by the ENVRI cluster. In addition, it attempted to establish connections between these assets and the emerging service ecosystem of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). ENVRI-FAIR focused on the development and implementation of technical frameworks and policy solutions to promote permeable subdomain boundaries for environmental scientists, preparing Earth system science for the emerging Open Science paradigm. ENVRI-FAIR has been instrumental in establishing the ENVRI-Hub, an open-access platform aimed at fostering collaboration and co-creation within the ENVRI community and beyond.
To achieve ENVRI-FAIR’s high-level goals, the focus of work has been put predominantly on technical aspects. ENVRI RIs were engaged in enhancing the FAIRness of their individual data and services and promote them at a higher level by fostering FAIR practices as a collective cluster. To establish a shared foundation, critical technical gaps have been identified and prioritised. Through cross-discipline harmonisation and standardisation activities, and the implementation of joint data management and access structures at the RI level, ENVRI-FAIR facilitated strategic coordination of observation systems required for interdisciplinary science. By promoting common policies, open standards, interoperability solutions, and FAIR-based stewardship of data, ENVRI-FAIR significantly reduced development costs for individual RIs when addressing shared problems.
A few of the most important achievements are the following:
(1) The progressing implementation of FAIR-enabling resources during ENVRI-FAIR was captured by multiple updates of FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIP) implemented at the various data resources of the participating RIs. At project start, the average FIP score was 66% (min. 24%, max. 95%) of maximum reachable FAIR-enabling resources, while at the end of the project, the average FIP score was 88% (min. 57%, max. 100%). These numbers quantify the enormous success of ENVRI-FAIR for the FAIRification of the various repositories operated by the RIs.
(2) The ENVRI-Hub Demonstrator represents collaboration, accessibility, and FAIRness. It functions as a demonstration platform, a testbed, and a service validation framework, enabling participating infrastructures and their communities to benefit from enhanced collaboration, improved data accessibility, and a pathway towards achieving FAIR compliance. Through the ENVRI-Hub, the ENVRI community shares their FAIRness experience, technologies, and training as well as research products and services. The architecture and functionalities of the ENVRI-Hub are driven by scientific applications, use cases and user needs. Its three main pillars are the ENVRI Knowledge Base as the human interface to the ENVRI ecosystem, the ENVRI Catalogue of Services as the EOSC-based machine-actionable interface to the ENVRI ecosystem, and finally, subdomain and cross-domain scientific use cases as demonstrators for the capabilities of service provision among ENVRI RIs and across science clusters.
The ENVRI-Hub Demonstrator is accessible at https://envri-hub.envri.eu/.
(3) The science demonstrators published on the ENVRI-Hub are the key products to express the ENVRI-Hub’s potential regarding easy access to metadata and services, data discovery, as well as the promotion of interoperability in science across subdomains. They also demonstrate the capabilities of service provision among ENVRI RIs and science clusters and demonstrate how joint projects can address major challenges for Europe’s societies and how research infrastructures can support Horizon Europe’s missions within EOSC. Science demonstrators are supported by Jupyter Notebooks which form the nucleus of the future ENVRI Virtual Research Environment.
(4) Our stakeholder communities were targeted by a series of tailored dissemination events: (i) regular ENVRI community sessions during the annual ENVRI weeks; (ii) EOSC Symposia and EOSC Future meetings for reaching out to EOSC key players and e-Infrastructures; (iii) European Geosciences Union General Assemblies for targeting the scientific communities of all ENVRI RIs engaged in ENVRI-FAIR and beyond; (iv) the Policy Event entitled “Open and FAIR environmental data for societal benefits” organised parallel to the Conference on ”The Potential of Research Data: How Research Infrastructures Provide New Opportunities and Benefits for Society” of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 19 – 20 June 2023 in Lund, Sweden, for reaching out to decision makers and the broader public.
A few of the most important achievements are the following:
(1) The progressing implementation of FAIR-enabling resources during ENVRI-FAIR was captured by multiple updates of FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIP) implemented at the various data resources of the participating RIs. At project start, the average FIP score was 66% (min. 24%, max. 95%) of maximum reachable FAIR-enabling resources, while at the end of the project, the average FIP score was 88% (min. 57%, max. 100%). These numbers quantify the enormous success of ENVRI-FAIR for the FAIRification of the various repositories operated by the RIs.
(2) The ENVRI-Hub Demonstrator represents collaboration, accessibility, and FAIRness. It functions as a demonstration platform, a testbed, and a service validation framework, enabling participating infrastructures and their communities to benefit from enhanced collaboration, improved data accessibility, and a pathway towards achieving FAIR compliance. Through the ENVRI-Hub, the ENVRI community shares their FAIRness experience, technologies, and training as well as research products and services. The architecture and functionalities of the ENVRI-Hub are driven by scientific applications, use cases and user needs. Its three main pillars are the ENVRI Knowledge Base as the human interface to the ENVRI ecosystem, the ENVRI Catalogue of Services as the EOSC-based machine-actionable interface to the ENVRI ecosystem, and finally, subdomain and cross-domain scientific use cases as demonstrators for the capabilities of service provision among ENVRI RIs and across science clusters.
The ENVRI-Hub Demonstrator is accessible at https://envri-hub.envri.eu/.
(3) The science demonstrators published on the ENVRI-Hub are the key products to express the ENVRI-Hub’s potential regarding easy access to metadata and services, data discovery, as well as the promotion of interoperability in science across subdomains. They also demonstrate the capabilities of service provision among ENVRI RIs and science clusters and demonstrate how joint projects can address major challenges for Europe’s societies and how research infrastructures can support Horizon Europe’s missions within EOSC. Science demonstrators are supported by Jupyter Notebooks which form the nucleus of the future ENVRI Virtual Research Environment.
(4) Our stakeholder communities were targeted by a series of tailored dissemination events: (i) regular ENVRI community sessions during the annual ENVRI weeks; (ii) EOSC Symposia and EOSC Future meetings for reaching out to EOSC key players and e-Infrastructures; (iii) European Geosciences Union General Assemblies for targeting the scientific communities of all ENVRI RIs engaged in ENVRI-FAIR and beyond; (iv) the Policy Event entitled “Open and FAIR environmental data for societal benefits” organised parallel to the Conference on ”The Potential of Research Data: How Research Infrastructures Provide New Opportunities and Benefits for Society” of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 19 – 20 June 2023 in Lund, Sweden, for reaching out to decision makers and the broader public.
Among the biggest success stories of ENVRI-FAIR are the achieved integration of ENVRI RIs at subdomain level and the achieved level of data and service interoperability between the subdomain RIs resulting from this integration process. Impressive evidence of this successful implementation is provided by the science demonstrators on the subdomain data viewers (FAIR Atmospheric Data Demonstrator; Marine Data Viewer) and by the cross-domain, EOSC-based Dashboard for the State of the Environment. The science demonstrators along with the ENVRI Catalogue of Services, the widely used ENVRI Training Platform and Knowledge Base form the ENVRI-Hub as a complementary element of success.
The ENVRI approach of maintaining the integrity of the individual RI data management systems while implementing cross-cluster findability, accessibility, and interoperability of data through a metadata-mapping interface proved to be very successful. Additionally, the ENVRI-Hub served as a highly efficient tool for accelerating the FAIRification of the Environment Domain RIs. Particularly, the preparation of data and service provisions for incorporation into the different subdomain and cross-domain scientific use cases, helped to identify and subsequently fill gaps in data FAIRness at the RI level.
Despite the huge achievements gained during ENVRI-FAIR, it must be noted that this is still a "work-in-progress". Although FAIRness implementation has reached an encouraging level of maturity at the finalisation of ENVRI-FAIR, the achieved FAIRness at individual RI level is far from complete, and filling some of the gaps still requires resources to be allocated. Thanks to the successful evaluation of the community proposal “ENVRI-Hub NEXT”, submitted to the European Commission, further developments and enhancements of the ENVRI-Hub are now secured. This funding will ensure the sustainability and advancement of the results achieved by the ENVRI-FAIR project.
The ENVRI approach of maintaining the integrity of the individual RI data management systems while implementing cross-cluster findability, accessibility, and interoperability of data through a metadata-mapping interface proved to be very successful. Additionally, the ENVRI-Hub served as a highly efficient tool for accelerating the FAIRification of the Environment Domain RIs. Particularly, the preparation of data and service provisions for incorporation into the different subdomain and cross-domain scientific use cases, helped to identify and subsequently fill gaps in data FAIRness at the RI level.
Despite the huge achievements gained during ENVRI-FAIR, it must be noted that this is still a "work-in-progress". Although FAIRness implementation has reached an encouraging level of maturity at the finalisation of ENVRI-FAIR, the achieved FAIRness at individual RI level is far from complete, and filling some of the gaps still requires resources to be allocated. Thanks to the successful evaluation of the community proposal “ENVRI-Hub NEXT”, submitted to the European Commission, further developments and enhancements of the ENVRI-Hub are now secured. This funding will ensure the sustainability and advancement of the results achieved by the ENVRI-FAIR project.