FAIRmat project meeting June 2024

Jun 10, 2024, 12:00 PM → Jun 12, 2024, 2:30 PM Europe/Berlin

Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB)

Welcome to the event page for our upcoming FAIRmat project meeting taking place in Berlin on June 10 - 12, 2024. Please note that this is an internal FAIRmat event and is only intended for PIs and employees of FAIRmat.

You will find information regarding the event via the respective subpages, which will be updated regularly. Check out the program and submit your suggestions for inter-area meetings with your registration.

Registration is open until April 5, 2024!

For our non-Berlin based participants, please check the  "Accommodation" subpage. This year, it is possible to reserve accommodation via the event organizers.

We look forward to a successful project meeting in June 2024 with you!

the event organizers from Area F and G

Monday, June 10

12:00 PM → 1:00 PM Lunch and registration

1:00 PM → 1:15 PM Welcome

1:30 PM → 5:00 PM Area meetings

1:30 PM Area A

1:30 PM Area B

1:30 PM Area C

1:30 PM Area D

1:30 PM Area E

1:30 PM Area F and G

7:00 PM → 8:00 PM Dinner at Doon - Weerthstraße 10, 12489 Berlin

Tuesday, June 11

9:00 AM → 10:00 AM Area progress reports

9:00 AM Area G report

9:20 AM Area A report

9:40 AM Area B report

10:00 AM → 10:30 AM Coffee break

10:30 AM → 12:00 PM Area progress reports

10:30 AM Area C report

10:50 AM Area D report

11:10 AM Area E report

11:30 AM Area F report

12:00 PM → 1:00 PM Lunch

1:00 PM → 3:30 PM Inter-area meetings 1

1:00 PM Incentivizing NOMAD uploads

Storing research data in accessible and searchable repositories is crucial for fulfilling the FAIR principles and advancing scientific knowledge while promoting transparency. In addition to the inherent benefits of sharing data in this way, the researcher also benefits from the various tools and functionalities built around the repository, which can significantly improve their project efficiency in the long run. However, integrating new data management practices into a group requires considerable effort in the short term, and many researchers require an extra push to make the necessary changes.
In this session, we will discuss current and future approaching for incentivising researchers, especially. The session will be largely held within a structured discussion forum format, with the following major topics covered:
- Recognition: DOIs, citation metrics, badges or certifications, highlights on website, invited talks, awards, ...
- Networking: Discord organization, fostering user collaborations, ...
- Learning: Documentation, LLM chat bot, onboarding workshops, ...
- Policy-driven culture change: Institutional partnerships, funding policy adherence and advertising, DMP assistance, ...
- Tools: extension of dataset features, linking to workflow managers, linking to post-processing software, ...

2:00 PM Interoperability

Making data interoperable is important aim at FAIRmat. We should demonstrate best practices in how to organise data and metadata from synthesis, experiments and computation so that they can be properly understood not only within their respective domain, but also by the other domains. The first step is the harmonisation of the concepts from the different domains, so then during parsing and normalising the data files, the metadata are assigned to concepts being preharmonised. While common tools which understand this vocabulary directly will immediately be able to work with such data, domain specific tools on the other hand need to be provided with data after a proper export using that vocabulary.
After an introduction, this session allows discussions in small circles between experts from different domains to start shaping such vocabulary as an interface between their domains. These circles among others include: Biophysics (C-E), Systems (A-B-C), Catalysis (A-B-C-E), Batteries(B-E), Raman (A-B-C), MPES (B-C).

3:30 PM → 5:30 PM Poster session

5:00 PM → 5:30 PM EB meeting

7:00 PM → 8:00 PM Dinner at I Due Amici - Rudower Chausee 24, 12489 Berlin

Wednesday, June 12

9:00 AM → 10:00 AM Inter-area meetings 2

9:00 AM Collaboration

In this session, we will discuss the diverse collaboration strategies employed by FAIRmat, highlighting our engagement with individual researchers, research initiatives, the NFDI, and large-scale European projects. We will discuss how FAIRmat supports proposals driven by individual Principal Investigators (PIs) and fosters synergy with Collaborative Research Centers (CRCs). Additionally, we will showcase our involvement in major European consortia, such as the SolMates project, emphasizing our role in advancing collaborative research across various domains.
We will explore how these collaborations can be shaped to maximize mutual benefits, defining what FAIRmat can offer—such as data management expertise, shared infrastructure, and support for development—and what we gain in return, including diverse data sets, innovative research methodologies, and strengthened our use cases while increasing our base users.

9:00 AM ELN/Usability

Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) are vital for digitalizing Research Data Management (RDM) by acquiring data with comprehensive metadata. However, their acceptance and implementation face challenges, especially in labs where ease of use is crucial. Balancing user-friendliness with generating FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data is a significant issue.
NOMAD is a robust interoperability tool, excelling in raw file processing and data analysis. Although NOMAD’s ELN functionality supports structured data generation, it isn't ideal for usage in lab settings yet.
Third-party ELN integrations show progress, with schemas for Labfolder, eLabFTW, OpenBIS, and Chemotion. Best practices for structured data from ELN entries are established only for Labfolder. Using Large Language Models (LLMs) to structure ELN entries is promising but requires more development.
This session will discuss the current status of ELNs and NOMAD, key challenges, and next steps for ELN usage. We'll explore best practices and strategies to improve ease of use and acceptance in labs while ensuring data integrity and FAIR compliance.

10:00 AM → 10:30 AM Coffee break

10:30 AM → 11:30 AM Inter-area meetings 2

10:30 AM Data modeling

Data modeling is a pivotal topic for FAIRmat as is it the basis of all FAIR data. In this session, we will discuss the latest improvements to our schema language NOMAD Metainfo and how we can further develop it. While this session is not necessarily about specific data models, we can still cover the role of schema plugins and base sections. Another topic is our sections results and how to transition to the physical properties that were subject of the interoperability task-force in the last months. Furthermore, we can discuss the role of other schema languages, e.g. from the semantic web realm (JSON-schema, JSON-ld), how to include NOMAD data in the world of linked data, and thereby potentially collaborate with other NFDI consortia.

10:30 AM Education

In a data-driven world, data literacy and research data management (RDM) are essential skills that students in physics should acquire early in their studies. However, integrating these topics into the curricula of universities in dedicated courses with their own credit hours is challenging. Adapting existing courses in the physics curriculum to include the teaching of research data management skills has been shown by FAIRmat PIs to be a successful approach. The integration of the use of programming languages for data handling and analysis as well as the introduction of Electronic Lab Notebooks for data documentation in practical courses have been implemented at the physics departments of the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität of Erlangen- Nürnberg.
Recognizing the common challenges and opportunities in RDM education, FAIRmat has initiated a collaboration within the Physical Sciences in NFDI (PSinNFDI) group to establish a common platform for collaboration on this topic. In the kick-off meeting (November 2023), exemplary approaches were presented and challenges of RDM implementation at German universities were discussed. The main outcome was the establishment of a collection process for educational materials and approaches offered within the PSinNFDI and beyond.
This session will present the results and progress of the PSinNFDI collaboration. We will discuss methods of implementing RDM education in university courses and how NOMAD can be introduced as a tool for RDM in different contexts. The discussion will focus on sharing experiences, identifying common challenges and possible solutions, exploring opportunities for collaboration, and sharing knowledge and resources.

11:30 AM → 12:30 PM Plenary session

12:30 PM → 1:30 PM Lunch and farewell