“Be Sustainable”: EOSC-Life Recommendations for Implementation of FAIR Principles in Life Science Data Handling

The main goals and challenges for the life science communities in the Open Science framework are to increase reuse and sustainability of data resources, software tools, and workflows, especially in large-scale data-driven research and computational analyses. Here, we present key findings, procedures, effective measures and recommendations for generating and establishing sustainable life science resources based on the collaborative, cross-disciplinary work done within the EOSC-Life (European Open Science Cloud for Life Sciences) consortium. Bringing together 13 European life science research infrastructures, it has laid the foundation for an open, digital space to support biological and medical research. Using lessons learned from 27 selected projects, we describe the organisational, technical, financial and legal/ethical challenges that represent the main barriers to sustainability in the life sciences. We show how EOSC-Life provides a model for sustainable data management according to FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) principles, including solutions for sensitive- and industry-related resources, by means of cross-disciplinary training and best practices sharing. Finally, we illustrate how data harmonisation and collaborative work facilitate interoperability of tools, data, solutions and lead to a better understanding of concepts, semantics and functionalities in the life sciences

Human brain slices for epilepsy research:pitfalls, solutions and future challenges

Increasingly, neuroscientists are taking the opportunity to use live human tissue obtained from elective neurosurgical procedures for electrophysiological studies in vitro. Access to this valuable resource permits unique studies into the network dynamics that contribute to the generation of pathological electrical activity in the human epileptic brain. Whilst this approach has provided insights into the mechanistic features of electrophysiological patterns associated with human epilepsy, it is not without technical and methodological challenges. This review outlines the main difficulties associated with working with epileptic human brain slices from the point of collection, through the stages of preparation, storage and recording. Moreover, it outlines the limitations, in terms of the nature of epileptic activity that can be observed in such tissue, in particular, the rarity of spontaneous ictal discharges, we discuss manipulations that can be utilised to induce such activity. In addition to discussing conventional electrophysiological techniques that are routinely employed in epileptic human brain slices, we review how imaging and multielectrode array recordings could provide novel insights into the network dynamics of human epileptogenesis. Acute studies in human brain slices are ultimately limited by the lifetime of the tissue so overcoming this issue provides increased opportunity for information gain. We review the literature with respect to organotypic culture techniques that may hold the key to prolonging the viability of this material. A combination of long-term culture techniques, viral transduction approaches and electrophysiology in human brain slices promotes the possibility of large scale monitoring and manipulation of neuronal activity in epileptic microcircuits

The challenge of the spaceship: Arthur C. Clarke and the history of the future, 1945-75

Arthur C. Clarke’s 1946 essay on ‘The Challenge of the Spaceship’ was one of the founding manifestoes of the Space Age, and helped to establish him as the West’s leading techno-prophet. Restating his ideas in subsequent factual and fictional works, Clarke successfully propagated the belief that man’s destiny lay in space and that the process was already underway. On the surface Clarke’s oeuvre offers a classic astrofuturist model of progress as technology-driven, but on closer examination it also incorporates a more pessimistic, historically based strand of philosophy, British rather than American. This essay traces the genesis of Clarke’s early work and the influence upon him of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee and the moral philosophers Olaf Stapledon and C.S. Lewis. Toynbee was essentially a Christian pessimist who believed that western civilization was on the way out; his long historical perspectives were an important source of inspiration for Clarke, leading him to a cyclical rather than a simply progressive model of history which contemplated both the beginning and the end of civilizations. The concerns of Stapledon and Lewis with grand narratives of decline and redemption were also influences on Clarke. All this needs to be understood in relation to both the European experience of World War I and to the coming of the atomic bomb, the latter a profound influence on Clarke’s generation. Such perspectives gave European astroculture a more modulated vision of the human future in space than the technologically based astrofuturism which dominated in the USA

“Be sustainable”: EOSC‐Life recommendations for implementation of FAIR principles in life science data handling

The main goals and challenges for the life science communities in the Open Science framework are to increase reuse and sustainability of data resources, software tools, and workflows, especially in large‐scale data‐driven research and computational analyses. Here, we present key findings, procedures, effective measures and recommendations for generating and establishing sustainable life science resources based on the collaborative, cross‐disciplinary work done within the EOSC‐Life (European Open Science Cloud for Life Sciences) consortium. Bringing together 13 European life science research infrastructures, it has laid the foundation for an open, digital space to support biological and medical research. Using lessons learned from 27 selected projects, we describe the organisational, technical, financial and legal/ethical challenges that represent the main barriers to sustainability in the life sciences. We show how EOSC‐Life provides a model for sustainable data management according to FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) principles, including solutions for sensitive‐ and industry‐related resources, by means of cross‐disciplinary training and best practices sharing. Finally, we illustrate how data harmonisation and collaborative work facilitate interoperability of tools, data, solutions and lead to a better understanding of concepts, semantics and functionalities in the life sciences

Preprint: "Be Sustainable", Recommendations for FAIR Resources in Life Sciences research: EOSC-Life's Lessons

"Be SURE - Be SUstainable REcommendations" The main goals and challenges for the Life Science (LS) communities in the Open Science framework are to increase reuse and sustainability of data resources, software tools, and workflows, especially in large-scale data-driven research and computational analyses. Here, we present key findings, procedures, effective measures and recommendations for generating and establishing sustainable LS resources based on the collaborative, cross-disciplinary work done within the EOSC-Life (European Open Science Cloud for Life Sciences) consortium. Bringing together 13 European LS Research Infrastructures (RIs), it has laid the foundation for an open, digital space to support biological and medical research. Using lessons learned from 27 selected projects, we describe the organisational, technical, financial and legal/ethical challenges that represent the main barriers to sustainability in the life sciences. We show how EOSC-Life provides a model for sustainable FAIR data management, including solutions for sensitive- and industry-related resources, by means of cross-disciplinary training and best practices sharing. Finally, we illustrate how data harmonisation and collaborative work facilitate interoperability of tools, data, solutions and lead to a better understanding of concepts, semantics and functionalities in the life sciences. IN PRESS EMBO Journal: https://www.embopress.org/journal/14602075This research is mainly a product of the EOSC-Life European programme funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº824087. Complementary support was provided through EU funded project AgroServ (grant agreement Nº101058020), EU funded project BY-COVID (grant agreement Nº101046203), EU funded project DANUBIUS-IP (grant agreement Nº101079778), EU funded project EMPHASIS-GO (grant agreement Nº101079772), EU funded project FAIRplus (IMI grant agreement Nº802750), EU funded project FAIRsharing (Wellcome grant agreement Nº212930/Z/18/Z), EU funded project ISIDORe (grant agreement Nº101046133), EU funded project Precision Toxicology (grant agreement Nº965406), UKRI DASH (grant agreement NºMR/V038966/1). Special thanks to T. Biro and her radical collaboration team from Research Data Alliance who gave us great inspiration on how to lead this radical collaboration work

“Be sustainable”: EOSC‐Life recommendations for implementation of FAIR principles in life science data handling

The main goals and challenges for the life science communities in the Open Science framework are to increase reuse and sustainability of data resources, software tools, and workflows, especially in large-scale data-driven research and computational analyses. Here, we present key findings, procedures, effective measures and recommendations for generating and establishing sustainable life science resources based on the collaborative, cross-disciplinary work done within the EOSC-Life (European Open Science Cloud for Life Sciences) consortium. Bringing together 13 European life science research infrastructures, it has laid the foundation for an open, digital space to support biological and medical research. Using lessons learned from 27 selected projects, we describe the organisational, technical, financial and legal/ethical challenges that represent the main barriers to sustainability in the life sciences. We show how EOSC-Life provides a model for sustainable data management according to FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) principles, including solutions for sensitive- and industry-related resources, by means of cross-disciplinary training and best practices sharing. Finally, we illustrate how data harmonisation and collaborative work facilitate interoperability of tools, data, solutions and lead to a better understanding of concepts, semantics and functionalities in the life sciences