About UNLOCK FAIR data platform#
The UNLOCK FAIR Data Platform is an interoperable research infrastructure, designed to support microbial research through FAIR data collection, analysis, and storage. It is a core component of the UNLOCK facility.
Why FAIR?#
Online repositories sharing scientific data are vital for the advancement of science. Data sharing improves research transparency, promotes the validation of experimental methods and scientific conclusions, enables data reuse, and facilitates knowledge discovery using new analysis tools. Essential for reusing scientific data is the availability of machine-readable metadata about the scientific experiments conducted with a degree of completeness that reflects the FAIR guiding principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable.
Platform components#
At its heart, the FDP consists of four elements:
The FAIR Data Station (FAIR-DS): a metadata ingestion platform that helps to improve the quality of metadata. The station allows users to record metadata according to minimum information standards thereby ensuring FAIR scientific data management from the start.
iRODS: for computing, data management, and long-term data storage, hosted by Wageningen University & Research (WUR).
Containerized applications and workflows: enabling reproducible and scalable data analysis.
Live data monitoring: by connecting various equipment types, users are able to monitor their devices in real time. Eventually, the FDP also aims to implement remote control of hardware.
To support flexible and meaningful data integration, UNLOCK adopts the Resource Description Framework (RDF) data model. This allows datasets from diverse sources to be linked in a structured, meaningful way using shared semantics.
