Firstly, welcome to my blog, or better yet, The FAIR Elephant blog. I am delighted that you found your way to this site. So what is The FAIR Elephant?

Well, for those of you who need something short and sweet, here is the TL;DR:

With The FAIR Elephant, I want to support researchers with the implementation of better research data management tools with continual support during the process of change. Furthermore, I would like to present overviews of the newest developments in RDM in the natural sciences to help researchers stay up-to-date.

And now the slightly longer version:

In 2022 and 2023, I was part of the trainer team of the workshop “FAIR Research Data Management: Basics for Chemists” of the NFDI4Chem. During this time, we visited many different working groups and universities, introduced them to the basic concepts of research data management (RDM), specific to the chemistry community, and presented different tools that help researchers improve their work. Like the workshop of the NFDI4Chem, there are many different free workshops on RDM out there, generic ones as well as discipline-specific workshops. All these workshops give an excellent introduction to the field of RDM and the latest developments in RDM. If you haven’t visited at least one of these workshops, I would highly recommend participating in one. Many of the different consortia of the NFDI or state initiatives in Germany, offer these workshops for free. I observed that these workshops are great for an introduction to the topic and getting started, but many researchers need more support. Starting to improve your RDM or the RDM of a whole working group is a process. RDM needs to be tailored to your research and your specific problems. This is something NFDI and other RDM initiatives cannot fully accomplish, at least not alone. With The FAIR Elephant, I want to start exactly there. With the service Rent-A-RDM Expert, I would like to give you the opportunity to have somebody by your side supporting you during the time of change. This service will be tailored to your needs and offers support for weeks, months, or as long as you need it. I hope this will support researchers and ease their way, starting with better RDM.

Another thing that became very obvious in the last year is that there is a lot going on in the field of RDM in the natural sciences, and it is hard for researchers as well as data stewards (RDM experts) to keep up-to-date with the newest developments. Therefore, The FAIR Elephant will also give a weekly update on the latest developments (e.g. in the NFDIs or other initiatives). So stay tuned for weekly content.

If you would like to know more about The FAIR Elephant, click here. Currently, The FAIR Elephant is on LinkedIn and Mastodon, so feel free to follow.

I am very much looking forward to 2024.

Benjamin