The December 2022 edition of the FAIRmat newsletter is now available to read here on our website! As well as project updates, this newsletter features interviews and articles from the FAIRmat community.

Recordings of the FAIRmat tutorial on Experimental data management in NOMAD are now available on YouTube !

The YouTube playlist includes the following sessions:

• Introductory talk on the science case by Heiko Weber
• Metadata standardisation by Sandor Brockhauser
• Experiment: from planning to data collection by Michael Krieger, Johannes Lehmeyer and Alexander Fuchs
• Hands on tutorial on data sharing, visualisation and analysis in NOMAD by Sherjeel Shabih
• Q&A session

All information about the tutorial can be found on the tutorial event page. 

On Monday January 9 2023 at 16:00 CET, Susanna-Assunta Sansone of the Oxford e-Research Centre will give the talk FAIR data: no longer optional, but it takes a village! live online at the NFDI Physical Sciences Joint Colloquium.

For more information ont this talk or the colloquium series, see the event page. 

Abstract

The FAIR Principles, we have co-authored, have propelled the global debate in all disciplines on the importance of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable data, by humans and machines, and the need for better research data management, transparent and reproducible data worldwide. FAIR has united stakeholders world-wide behind a common concept: good data management under common standards. FAIR is a fundamental enabler for digital transformation in the public and in the private sectors. It is no longer optional. However, the FAIR Principles are aspirational, and putting FAIR into practice is work in progress; it “takes a village”!

Starting with a brief history of the Principles, Susanna will paint the landscape of key initiatives and community activities for FAIR data, including resources like FAIRsharing (https://fairsharing.org/) for standards, databases and policies, tools like ISA (https://isa-tools.org) for describing the experimental details, and educational resources such as the FAIR Cookbook (https://faircookbook.elixir-europe.org) with best practices for research data management and hands-on recipes to make and keep data FAIR.

The video of the talk Multi-method, multi-messenger approaches to models of strong correlations given by Thomas Schäfer of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research on November 24, 2022 is now available on YouTube.

Abstract: The Hubbard model is the paradigmatic model for electronic correlations. In this talk I present a general framework for the reliable calculation of its properties, which we coined 'multi-method, multi-messenger' approach. I will illustrate the power of this approach with three recent studies: (i) an extensive synopsis of arguably all available finite-temperature methods for the half-filled Hubbard model on a simple square lattice in its weak-coupling regime and (ii) a complementary subset of those applied to the Hubbard model on a triangular geometry. While the former example fully clarifies the impact of spin fluctuations and tracks it footprints on the one- and two-particle level, the latter exhibits the intriguing interplay of geometric frustration (magnetism) and strong correlations (Mottness). As a last example, (iii) I will show the application to a model system for the magnetic properties of an actual material, the infinite layer nickelate compound LaNiO2, whose magnetic susceptibility exhibits non-Curie-Weiss behavior at low temperatures . These examples may work as a blueprint for similar future studies of strongly correlated systems.

The first FAIRmat users' meeting took place on November 16 2022 as part of the FAIRmat project meeting in Berlin. The event offered an opportunity for current users, potential users, and scientists interested in research data management to learn about the activities of FAIRmat and talk directly to our experts. The event was well attended both on-site and in the virtual room on Zoom. 

The program started with an overview talk by the FAIRmat spokesperson Prof. Claudia Draxl, followed by presentations from represenatives of various FAIRmat areas to explain the tools and applications of FAIRmat.

The FAIRmat team in action

Invited speakers included two current users, Prof. Lorenz Romaner from Montanuniversität Leobenand Dr. Michael Götte from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, and prospective user Prof. Carlos-Andres Palma from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Our guest speakers

All of the talks are now available to watch on our YouTube channel. 

FAIRmat and the NOMAD HUB - NOMAD Data Center at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin are seeking several highly qualified and motivated software engineers to join the dynamic NOMAD team towards shaping the future of materials science!

We offer a stimulating, multidisciplinary working environment, a pay scale classification (TV-L), ample development opportunities, and flexible working hours. You will work at the FAIRmat headquarters, the brand-new NOMAD Data Center at HU Berlin. 

These positions are limited until 30 September 2026 with a perspective towards prolongation. 

Read the full job advert and apply online here.

The second FAIRmat project meeting took place on November 14-16 2022, at the FAIRmat headquarters
in the Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB) of the the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

All team members including PIs, FAIRmat domain experts and external collaborators gathered together to report on their achievements, progress and challenges during the past six months, and to plan activities for the upcoming period of the project. The meeting offered an opportunity for discussions within each Area as well as inter-Area discussions on topics of common interest and involvement.

On Wednesday December 7 2022 at 10:30 CET, John R. Helliwell of the University of Manchester will give the talk Applying the FAIR Principles to Crystallography Data Publication – a use case for DAPHNE4NFDI? at the NFDI Physical Sciences Joint Colloquium in Hamburg and online.

For more information and the registration link see the event page. 

Abstract

Crystallography is a discipline which has strived for decades to ensure availability of its data with its publications. This has involved harnessing digital storage media at every stage of their development through punched cards, magnetic tapes, disks and exemplified today by ‘the cloud’. Crystallography has a highly developed databases’ infrastructure which commenced with the Cambridge Structure Database in the 1960s and to the Protein Data Bank from 1971 onwards. There are community-agreed processed diffraction data and model validation checks that are routinely made, known as the Crystallographic Information Framework. Although this system is not perfect, it provides the best chance for ensuring reliability and thereby trust in what we do. This approach is summed up by the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) movement. More generally, the funding agencies, in their response to governments and taxpayers, also seek faster discoveries and, if possible, better value for their money. Thus, raw data could be released for use beyond the original research team, usually after an embargo period of typically 3 years. There is an expansion of the synchrotron, X-ray laser and neutron facilities’ capacities to archive raw data. The colossal expansion of the raw data archives presents excellent
opportunities to all scientists, including users of the photon and neutron facilities. In Germany the National Research Data Infrastructure Germany (NFDI) is bringing proper data management tools and metadata harvesting to many science areas including the photon and neutron sciences (DAPHNE4NFDI, DAta from PHoton and Neutron Experiments). DAPHNE4NFDI offers an exemplary approach to research raw data management strategy from proposal, to data catalogue to linking to publication.

Recordings of the FAIRmat tutorial on NOMAD Oasis and FAIR data collaboration and sharing are now available on YouTube !

The YouTube playlist includes the following sessions:

• Talk by Christoph T. Koch: The potential of digital encyclopedias in materials science
• Hands-on session with Lauri Himanen: Introduction to the NOMAD Encyclopedia

All information about the tutorial including slides & the link to the YouTube playlist can be found on the tutorial 5 page. 

On September 22-23, 2022, FAIRmat Area B held the Workshop on data exchange and storage in ellipsometry in Leipzig. This was the first workshop in the Community meets technology partners series, which aims to lay a foundation of cooperation for users and vendors to work together on making experimental data FAIR. At this first meeting, members of the scientific community and the technology partners worked together towards the goal of FAIR data handling in ellipsometry. Their very fruitful discussion was focused on reviewing a specific application definition, NXellipsometry, in detail.

You can read more about this workshop and the whole event series on the event page.