Rapid and effective data sharing is necessary to control disease outbreaks, such as the current coronavirus pandemic. Despite the existence of data sharing agreements, data silos, lack of interoperable data infrastructures, and different institutional jurisdictions hinder data sharing and accessibility. To overcome these challenges, the Virus Outbreak Data Network (VODAN)-Africa initiative is championing an approach in which data never leaves the institution where it was generated, but, instead, algorithms can visit the data and query multiple datasets in an automated way. To make this possible, FAIR Data Points—distributed data repositories that host machine-actionable data and metadata that adhere to the FAIR Guidelines (that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable)—have been deployed in participating institutions using a dockerised bundle of tools called VODAN in a Box (ViB). ViB is a set of multiple FAIR-enabling and open-source services with a single goal: to support the gathering of World Health Organization (WHO) electronic case report forms (eCRFs) as FAIR data in a machine-actionable way, but without exposing or transferring the data outside the facility. Following the execution of a proof of concept, ViB was deployed in Uganda and Leiden University. The proof of concept generated a first query which was implemented across two continents. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the architecture was carried out and established the changes needed for specifications and requirements for the future development of the solution.

Adopting the FAIR Guidelines—that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR)—in the health data system in Nigeria will help protect data against use by unauthorised parties, while also making data more accessible to legitimate users. However, little is known about the FAIR Guidelines and their compatibility with data and health laws and policies in Nigeria. This study assesses the governance framework for digital and health/eHealth policies in Nigeria and explores the possibility of a policy window opening for the FAIR Guidelines to be adopted and implemented in Nigeria's eHealth sector. Ten Nigerian policy documents were examined for mention of the FAIR Guidelines (or FAIR Equivalent terminology) and the 15 sub-criteria or facets. The analysis found that although the FAIR Guidelines are not explicitly mentioned, 70% of the documents contain FAIR Equivalent terminology. The Nigeria Data Protection Regulation contained the most FAIR Equivalent principles (73%) and some of the remaining nine documents also contained some FAIR Equivalent principles (between 0–60%). Accordingly, it can be concluded that a policy window is open for the FAIR Guidelines to be adopted and implemented in Nigeria's eHealth sector.

This article describes the FAIRification process (which involves making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable—or FAIR—for both machines and humans) for data related to the impact of COVID-19 on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia, Libya and Niger, according to the scheme adopted by GO FAIR. This process was divided into three phases: pre-FAIRification, FAIRification and post-FAIRification. Each phase consisted of seven steps. In the first phase, 118 in-depth interviews and 565 press articles and research reports were collected by students and researchers at the University of Sousse in Tunisia and researchers in Niger. These interviews, articles and reports constitute the dataset for this research. In the second phase, the data were sorted and converted into a machine actionable format and published on a FAIR Data Point hosted at the University of Sousse. In the third phase, an assessment of the implementation of the FAIR Guidelines was undertaken. Certain barriers and challenges were faced in this process and solutions were found. For FAIR data curation, certain changes need to be made to the technical process. People need to be convinced to make these changes and that the implementation of FAIR will generate a long-term return on investment. Although the implementation of FAIR Guidelines is not straightforward, making our resources FAIR is essential to achieving better science together.

Research and development are gradually becoming data-driven and the implementation of the FAIR Guidelines (that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) for scientific data administration and stewardship has the potential to remarkably enhance the framework for the reuse of research data. In this way, FAIR is aiding digital transformation. The ‘FAIRification’ of data increases the interoperability and (re)usability of data, so that new and robust analytical tools, such as machine learning (ML) models, can access the data to deduce meaningful insights, extract actionable information, and identify hidden patterns. This article aims to build a FAIR ML model pipeline using the generic FAIRification workflow to make the whole ML analytics process FAIR. Accordingly, FAIR input data was modelled using a FAIR ML model. The output data from the FAIR ML model was also made FAIR. For this, a hybrid hierarchical k-means (HHK) clustering ML algorithm was applied to group the data into homogeneous subgroups and ascertain the underlying structure of the data using a Nigerian-based FAIR dataset that contains data on economic factors, healthcare facilities, and coronavirus occurrences in all the 36 states of Nigeria. The model showed that research data and the ML pipeline can be FAIRified, shared, and reused by following the proposed FAIRification workflow and implementing technical architecture.

The FAIR Guidelines attempts to make digital data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). To prepare FAIR data, a new data science discipline known as data stewardship is emerging and, as the FAIR Guidelines gain more acceptance, an increase in the demand for data stewards is expected. Consequently, there is a need to develop curricula to foster professional skills in data stewardship through effective knowledge communication. There have been a number of initiatives aimed at bridging the gap in FAIR data management training through both formal and informal programmes. This article describes the experience of developing a digital initiative for FAIR data management training under the Digital Innovations and Skills Hub (DISH) project. The FAIR Data Management course offers 6 short on-demand certificate modules over 12 weeks. The modules are divided into two sets: FAIR data and data science. The core subjects cover elementary topics in data science, regulatory frameworks, FAIR data management, intermediate to advanced topics in FAIR Data Point installation, and FAIR data in the management of healthcare and semantic data. Each week, participants are required to devote 7–8 hours of self-study to the modules, based on the resources provided. Once they have satisfied all requirements, students are certified as FAIR data scientists and qualified to serve as both FAIR data stewards and analysts. It is expected that in-depth and focused curricula development with diverse participants will build a core of FAIR data scientists for Data Competence Centres and encourage the rapid adoption of the FAIR Guidelines for research and development.

The incompleteness of patient health data is a threat to the management of COVID-19 in Africa and globally. This has become particularly clear with the recent emergence of new variants of concern. The Virus Outbreak Data Network (VODAN)-Africa has studied the curation of patient health data in selected African countries and identified that health information flows often do not involve the use of health data at the point of care, which renders data production largely meaningless to those producing it. This modus operandi leads to disfranchisement over the control of health data, which is extracted to be processed elsewhere. In response to this problem, VODAN-Africa studied whether or not a design that makes local ownership and repositing of data central to the data curation process, would have a greater chance of being adopted. The design team based their work on the legal requirements of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); the FAIR Guidelines on curating data as Findable, Accessible (under well-defined conditions), Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR); and national regulations applying in the context where the data is produced. The study concluded that the visiting of data curated as machine actionable and reposited in the locale where the data is produced and renders services has great potential for access to a wider variety of data. A condition of such innovation is that the innovation team is intradisciplinary, involving stakeholders and experts from all of the places where the innovation is designed, and employs a methodology of co-creation and capacity-building.