The NERC EDS is working towards ensuring that the data it holds is FAIR. The FAIR principles describe how research outputs should be organised so that they can be made more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.  

Making research data more FAIR provides a range of benefits including: 

• Maximising impact from research. 

• Increasing the visibility and citations of research. 

• Improving the reproducibility and reliability of research. 

• Attracting new partnerships with researchers, business, policy and broader communities. 

• Enabling new research questions to be answered. 

What the FAIR principles mean to you

Findable - This means that others can find your data due to rich descriptions (metadata) and persistent identifiers (e.g. DOIs) 

Accessible - This means your data are available and downloadable from a reputable repository 

Interoperable - This means your data are available in non-proprietary formats and are described using semantics and vocabularies e.g. the NERC Vocab Server 

Re-usable - This means your data are available under open licences and their provenance are fully documented 

Find out more

You can find out more about the FAIR principles by visiting the Go FAIR website