Research data management and FAIR sharing: Why we need the big picture

Open Science has always been promoted (rightfully so) as an altruistic, high ideal path that researchers should follow. This narrative has been re-enforced recently and most researchers wouldn’t disagree with its principles. However, achieving open/FAIR science is not a trivial task which researchers alone cannot be expected to accomplish. One of the key prerequisites for open science, proper Research Data Management (RDM), is particularly challenging and researchers need adequate support and advice. In this talk I will briefly introduce an example of such a support infrastructure for RDM at TU Delft. While acknowledging the merits of such an initiative at an institutional level, I will discuss what needs to be addressed at the international level. In the second part I will specifically focus on what’s usually holding back researchers from open/FAIR sharing. Especially, the missing aspects of the clear benefits and rewards available for researchers for being open/FAIR in a competitive academic environment which still puts high impact factors and number of publications on a pedestal. All these important issues that could potentially hinder the transition to FAIR/open science cannot be dealt by individual researchers or individual institutions. Therefore, I would like to explore the benefits of initiatives like EOSC that could facilitate the change in academic mind-set towards open science/FAIR data sharing at the European level, and subsequently worldwide.