Data Horror Stories: what core facilities see when FAIR goes wrong

It is October, which means the RDM Club’s Data Horror Stories panel is back. This year, bioinformatics core facility leads from the universities of Warwick, York and Cambridge share the darker side of supporting researchers to analyse and steward their life science data, and what “bad FAIR” looks like from where they sit.

The panel also invites member of the newly launched BioinfoCoreLeaders Club, ELIXIR-UK’s new community club for those managing and leading in bioinformatics core facilities. Every panellist is a member or chair of this new club.

What this call covers

• What core facilities see when data reaches them without being findable, accessible, interoperable or reusable, and what that costs researchers and the facility.
• The role of digital RTPs in enabling better FAIR data, as trainers and often the single point of contact for researchers analysing their data.
• Lessons learned and resources for dealing with these “horrors” before they happen.

What to expect

• Two lies and one truth. Each panellist shares three data stewardship stories, and only one of them is real.
• The reveal. A discussion of the real stories: what went wrong, what was learned and which resources helped.
• Open Q&A with the panel.

The panel

Eva Caamano Gutierrez, University of Liverpool (chair)

• Richard Stark, University of Warwick
• Alastair Droop, University of York
• Adam Reid, University of Cambridge

Who is this for

• Research data managers, data stewards and librarians
• Bioinformaticians and core facility staff, especially digital RTPs
• Researchers who hand their data over to a core facility, or will soon
• Anyone who has opened a folder called final_FINAL_v3 and felt a chill