Second FAIR Trainer Community Meeting

On 10 March 2026, the second LEARNFAIR trainers community meeting took place at Amsterdam UMC. Again, it was an opportunity for everyone involved in training on how to make the FAIR principles work in practice to meet and learn from one another.

To warm up and get to know each other better, participants discussed in rotating pairs what makes training successful, sharing their own experiences from practice.

Summary of the event

Community pitches

The meeting continued with three short pitches from members of the community. First, Kristina Hettne from the Science Faculty at Leiden University asked for tips on how to motivate researchers to join workshops on the interoperability and reusability of research data. Kristina teaches about tools and workflows such as FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIPs), which help research communities document their FAIR implementation choices, for example around metadata standards, as well as the use of linked open data, ontologies and standard vocabularies to improve interoperability. While she sees clear interest in these topics, that interest currently comes mainly from research support staff. Participants suggested a range of ways to promote the workshop, including LinkedIn posts, directly approaching new PhD students, and organising workshops within departments or at the start of research projects. It was also noted that practical use cases could make the topic more accessible for researchers.

Secondly, Dorien Huijser from TU Delft presented the Research Data Netherlands (RDNL) project to build a national training and community platform for data professionals. Funded by Open Science NL for four years, the project aims to increase capacity for FAIR data and Open Science. One concrete outcome will be a national curriculum and competency framework for data professionals, including a dedicated competency area for training and awareness raising. A train-the-trainer course is one of the deliverables due in autumn 2026.

Thirdly, Elize Vlainic from Amsterdam UMC presented work by training coordinators and data stewards from Health-RI nodes on an e-learning module for data stewards who are new to the role in the health domain. The module is intended to help them understand what data stewardship in this domain entails, find relevant networks and communities, and identify opportunities for further development and training.

LEARNFAIR project updates

In the second part of the programme, LEARNFAIR team members shared updates on the project’s progress. Paula Ramos-Silva presented the outcomes of the survey on the needs, gaps and challenges within the FAIR trainers community. Two of the most frequently mentioned challenges were limited awareness of existing training and the fact that many materials are still too theoretical. The survey will be followed by in-depth interviews with a selected group of respondents.

Myrthe van Heerde presented preliminary findings from a systematic review of FAIR-related Open Educational Resources in both the scientific literature and open repositories. The review aims to identify what resources exist, assess how findable they are, and highlight remaining gaps. One challenge discussed during the meeting was deciding which educational materials to exclude, especially resources focused mainly on Research Data Management with limited attention to putting the FAIR principles into practice. The study already shows a need for better metadata for FAIR training resources, because descriptions of the materials, their target audiences and their learning goals were often hard to find.

Maria Vivas Romero showed how community members can contribute to the FAIR lesson plan handbook and to the contentathons she organises. She also reflected on the process of co-creating Open Educational Resources across different countries, cultures, and contexts in Maria’s Chronicles.

Finally, Maria guided the group through a hands-on exercise on how to make training materials FAIR and open.

The next LEARNFAIR trainers community meeting will take place on 15 June 2026 from 12:30 to 17:00 at LUMC.