This case study is based on a presentation by Margreet Bloemers from ZonMw, the Dutch national funding agency for health research and innovation, during the Espoo edition of the ELIXIR Node Data Management Strategy (NDMS) module in 2023. The original training materials and shared notes are available through the ELITMa Espoo workshop materials.
The presentation explored how funder requirements can influence the way research data management and FAIRification are organised. For Nodes developing a data management strategy, such external developments can provide an important reason to review existing support and consider where broader coordination is needed.
Why is this relevant?
Many Nodes already support researchers with DMP guidance, repositories, consultations, FAIR support and training. Funder requirements can influence which kinds of support researchers need and how these activities are organised.
The ZonMw example showed a shift beyond project-level data management towards greater attention to reusable data and FAIRification. In practice, ZonMw has required a data management plan for every project it funds since 2013. During the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022), that requirement grew to include making data FAIR.
In the ZonMw COVID-19 programme, researchers from more than 60 projects worked together to agree on shared terms for describing their data, supported by data stewards and infrastructure partners such as Health-RI and the GO FAIR Foundation. ZonMw is now repeating this community-led approach for other domains, including infectious diseases, dementia and pandemic preparedness, because each research community needs its own agreed standards and vocabulary.
What can Nodes learn from this?
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External requirements can be a reason to review your strategy. Changes in funder expectations may reveal new support needs or increase the importance of activities that are already developing within the Node. ZonMw sees itself as a collaborator, not a bureaucrat, and its FAIR requirement came with practical support to match.
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Meeting a funder’s FAIR requirement requires coordination. Reusable data often depends on shared metadata standards, vocabularies, community agreements, FAIR expertise and support structures that cannot be organised project by project.
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A funder’s FAIR requirement still needs a community-specific answer. Different research domains use different standards, terminology and approaches, so supporting FAIR data often requires collaboration between researchers, domain experts, data stewards, infrastructures and funders.
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FAIR support goes beyond meeting a funder’s requirement. ZonMw is explicit that FAIR is not all or nothing: FAIRification is a process, with different levels of FAIRness. This can affect training, support services, infrastructure choices and the expertise a Node needs access to.
What can you do?
Consider which external developments currently influence data management in your Node. These might include requirements from funders, national policies, institutional policies or community standards.
Ask:
- Does your national or institutional funder have a similar FAIR or reusability requirement? If so, what changed, and when?
- Where might that funder’s change create a need for coordination in your Node?
- Which funder or other external requirements are already affecting researchers in your Node?
- What support does your Node already offer to help researchers meet those requirements?
- Are there activities that would benefit from a more strategic, Node-level response to these requirements?