The Portuguese Pilot of OSTrails, led by UMinho and FCT, actively participated in the Lusophone Conference on Open Science (CONFOA 2026) to showcase some of the developments and implementations carried out within the project. Bringing together the portuguese-speaking Open Science community, the conference provided a forum to present and discuss recent advances, initiatives, and experiences in Open Science. The event took place in Faro, Portugal, from 6 to 9 October 2026. The pilot's participation included the organisation of a workshop, the presentation of a poster, and a live demonstration aimed at sharing key outcomes and developments arising from its activities.
The workshop focused on the FAIRness of datasets published in data repositories, providing an in-depth overview of the design of FAIR benchmarks and metrics, as well as demonstrations of the FAIR Champion and OpenAIRE FAIR Validator tools for assessing the FAIRness of datasets and repositories, respectively. It aimed to strengthen the capacity of research data repository curation and management teams to evaluate datasets' compliance with the FAIR Data Principles. The session also presented the contributions of the OSTrails project to the development of the FAIR Interoperability Framework (FAIR-IF), which was designed to harmonise FAIR assessments through a common model and vocabulary, enabling consistent and comparable results across different assessment tools. In addition, it highlighted OSTrails' support for the development of more robust FAIR metrics and assessment tools tailored to the specific needs of different research communities and digital object types.
The poster focused on operationalising Machine-Actionable Data Management Plans (maDMPs) within the OSTrails project, illustrating the journey from theory to practice. It outlined the process of designing and implementing a machine-actionable data management plan using the OSTrails framework, with particular emphasis on the experiences and lessons learned from the Portuguese pilot.
Finally, a live demonstration of the FAIR Champion tool was delivered, showcasing the FAIR assessment of datasets deposited in data repositories and highlighting its practical application for evaluating dataset FAIRness using community-specific benchmarks tailored to the needs of different research communities.
