Standardisation in life-science research - Making the case for harmonization to improve communication and sharing of data amongst researchers

EasyChair Preprint 580

Abstract

Modern, high-throughput methods for the analysis of genetic information, gene and metabolic products and their interactions offer new opportunities to gain comprehensive information on life processes. The data and knowledge generated open diverse application possibilities with enormous innovation potential. To unlock that potential skills in generating but also properly annotating the data for further data integration and analysis are needed. The data need to be made computer readable and interoperable to allow integration with existing knowledge leading to actionable biological insights. To achieve this, we need common standards and standard operating procedures as well as workflows that allow the combination of data across standards. Currently, there is a lack of experts who understand the principles and possess knowledge of the principles and relevant tools. This is a major barrier hindering the implementation of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) data principles and the actual reusability of data. This is mainly due to insufficient and unequal education of the scientists and other stakeholders involved in producing and handling big data in life science that is inherently varied and complex in nature, and large in volume. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of life science research, education within this field faces numerous hurdles including institutional barriers, lack of local availability of all required expertise, as well as lack of appropriate teaching material and appropriate adaptation of curricula.

Keyphrases: Education, FAIR data, Interoperability, Quality Control (QC), Quality Management (QM), Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), standardisation

@booklet{EasyChair:580,
  author    = {Susanne Hollmann and Babette Regierer and Domenica D'Elia and Kristina Gruden and Špela Baebler and Markus Frohme and Juliane Pfeil and Ugur Sezerman and Chris T Evelo and Friederike Ehrhart and Berthold Huppertz and Erik Bongcam-Rudloff and Christophe Trefois and Aleksandra Gruca and Deborah A. Duca and Gianni Colotti and Roxana Merino-Martinez and Christos Ouzounis and Oliver Hunewald and Feng He and Andreas Kremer},
  title     = {Standardisation in life-science research - Making the case for harmonization to improve communication and sharing of data amongst researchers},
  doi       = {10.29007/4xkd},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 580},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2018}}