Promotion of the reuse of scientific health data has been investigated

Facilitating and promoting that scientific health data is guided by the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). This is the objective of FAIR4Health, the European scientific project in which researchers from the UC3M have participated, with the aim of demonstrating the potential impact that such a strategy may have on improving various scientific results. One of the most important challenges faced by data-intensive science is facilitating the progress of knowledge by helping with the discovery, findability, accessibility, integration and analysis of scientific data. The FAIR principles are intended to influence institutions in order to help them share research data in a way that is appropriate and useful for other researchers. Due to the nature of health data, its exchange and reuse for research is limited by ethical, legal and technical restraints. The cost for the European Union of non-FAIR research data is approximately 10.2 billion Euros each year, according to an analysis by the European Commission. "This happens because the money is invested in research, but the data that is collected (one of the most expensive parts of research) remains in each working group, without metadata, without being systematised or described—they are not shared, cannot be found and reused for further research," explain two researchers taking part in FAIR4Health, Tony Hernández and Eva M. Méndez from the UC3M's Department of Library and Information Sciences.