Making data work for science: How HEREDITARY is embracing FAIR principles

by | Jan 31, 2025 | Hereditary

One of the HEREDITARY project’s aims is to enhance the usability and impact of data generated and collected within the consortium by ensuring that it adheres to the FAIR principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. This is addressed in Task 3.6 FAIRification workflows and 1+MG guidelines compliance, led by EMBL, one of the partners in the consortium.

By applying these principles, researchers can enhance the impact and visibility of their work, improve reproducibility, and foster collaboration. FAIR data is easier to discover, understand, and integrate with other datasets, leading to new insights and innovative approaches.  Controlled Access data can also be FAIR, ensuring data is as open as possible and as closed as necessary, maximizing its potential value in scientific research and beyond while complying with data privacy. 

With the collaboration of the project’s data contributors, we will demonstrate how applying FAIRification workflows not only strengthens compliance with international guidelines (e.g., 1+MG, GA4GH) but also improves data discoverability and fosters cross-domain research, one of the focal points of HEREDITARY.

The process of FAIRification can benefit (meta)data collected within the HEREDITARY project, but also reused data obtained from other resources (e.g., EGA) and even synthetic data. Ensuring that data in HEREDITARY is FAIR could involve the following aspects:

✅ Better Metadata – Standardized metadata makes datasets easier to find and understand, even if access is restricted.

✅ Federated Integration – Harmonizing metadata across institutions enables large-scale comparisons and analysis.

✅ Interoperability – Aligning with European standards ensures seamless collaboration with other projects.

✅ Clear Data Policies – Defining usage and sharing conditions simplifies access while protecting sensitive data.

✅ Sustainability – Licensing and versioning ensure datasets remain useful beyond the project’s lifetime.

To sum up, by embracing FAIR principles, HEREDITARY strengthens its data ecosystem, making genomic research more efficient and impactful.