Managing data in cross-institutional projects

This paper provides guidelines for data management professionals and researchers on how FAIR data usage can help improve the planning, execution and overall success of a cross-institutional project. Cases from Danish cross-institutional projects are detailed to illustrate this point – as well as the lessons learnt with implementing FAIR data principles in such projects. Key learnings from this paper are: Using FAIR data principles in cross-institutional projects can help manage the data used in the project in terms of knowledge sharing, access rights, use of templates, metadata and further sharing the data after the project has ended. To benefit the most from using FAIR data in a cross-institutional project it should be considered and planned for early in the project process. If FAIR is not considered early in the project process problems can arise such as a lot of time spent on converting formats, obtaining permissions and assigning metadata. It is necessary for researchers and research projects to have infrastructure and other services in place which support FAIR data usage.