EERAdata develops and tests a FAIR and open data ecosystem for low-carbon energy research data. The project is now beginning its third year of implementation. A result of workshops held in the past two years is the publication of a community paper on “FAIR Metadata Standards for Low Carbon Energy Research—A Review of Practices and How to Advance”, which can be accessed here.

The consortium also engaged in EU consultations during January and February. Firstly, all partners jointly commented on the EU Action Plan for the Digitization of the Energy Sector. Secondly, coordinator Prof. Valeria Jana Schwanitz participated in a discussion around human-centred digitization between the European Commission, EERA, the climate change think tank E3G, and the umbrella group of consumer organizations BEUC. Among other topics, the social and behavioral aspects of digitalization, the engagement of consumers, the need for and barriers to new data-driven services and software were explored. EERAdata adds to the discussion with its experience on the prospects and challenges of FAIR and open data tools for low carbon energy research.

In March, the 4^th EERAdata Workshop (WS4) is upcoming. It will discuss and test supporting technologies for FAIRification. Among them is also the EERAdata platform, which will be brought to life during the second half of the project.  In the upcoming workshop, holders and users of databases will be provided with guidance and easy-access tools to improve the level of FAIRness with a hands-on approach. Learning from real-world cases, first functionalities of the tools will be presented and tested that create value-added to selected databases with respect to specific FAIR criteria. Special emphasis is given to machine actionability. The workshop will take place from Tuesday 15 to Thursday 17 March and will be hosted by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna. Several mini-workshops were held from 6 to 17 December last year in preparation for WS4, focussing on EERAdata use cases. The content of these mini sessions can be accessed here.

As the year progresses, it is expected that many additional steps will be taken within the project. Several deliverables are foreseen, and EERAdata will continue the meticulous job it has been doing in building a thriving community of stakeholders interested in progressing Open and FAIR data.