Three FAIRification frameworks in one room: ELIXIR-UK at ECCB2026

ELIXIR-UK contributed to two FAIRification events at ECCB2026, 31 August –  4 September in Geneva, Switzerland: a hands-on workshop within the ELIXIR Communities track and a satellite day comparing the ELIXIR, GO-FAIR and CODATA approaches.

The workshop, “ELIXIR-W2: Practical and pragmatic FAIRification of data in biodiversity, AI, health and beyond”, was delivered by the ELIXIR Interoperability Platform representatives from the UK, Sweden and Switzerland with a community representative from the ELIXIR-Netherlands (Jente Houweling). Nick Juty, The University of Manchester represented ELIXIR-UK. The session demonstrated the FAIRification process (how to apply the FAIR principles – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), introduced the Platform’s website, currently in development, and worked through a use case from the Toxicology Community. This was followed by a bring-your-own-data session. Attendees included ELIXIR community and platform representatives, none of whom had previously used the Framework.

In addition, the satellite ELIXIR Communities Day, “From FAIR principles to data pipelines”, set out to find touching points between the established FAIRification approaches. Morning sessions introduced each approach to the broader  audience with practical implementation use cases. In the afternoon, ELIXIR representatives applied their FAIRification Process to a GO-FAIR use case and vice versa. They found that CODATA’s Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework operates at a slightly higher level, where it can be incorporated at later stages for broader alignment, while the GO-FAIR and ELIXIR approaches align earlier and more readily, diverging only in later phases..

Representatives confirmed an interest in contributing to each other’s existing calls as a route to early alignment, and identified RDA, EOSC task forces and COST actions as venues where the cross-work could continue. 

The Platform has set out an ambition to produce downloadable bundles so that groups can run the FAIRification activities on their own use cases without a facilitator. UK groups wanting to apply the Framework to their own data can contact the Interoperability Platform.