When high-quality knowledge is accessible to all, it becomes unstoppable. Imagine a world where the latest breakthroughs around the world’s greatest challenges, such as climate change, global health, and medical innovation, are available to everyone—not locked behind paywalls.

Data sharing and reuse form a crucial piece of this puzzle. That's why we're taking action by making research more accessible and reusable through FAIR², our recently launched data management service that reimagines the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) for an AI-powered world.

Inspired by our FAIR² initiative, we've curated three Research Topics that explore both the opportunities and challenges of sharing and leveraging today's data and technologies to tackle our planet's most pressing issues and improve lives worldwide.

All articles are freely available to view and download.

1 | Navigating the landscape of FAIR data sharing and reuse: repositories, standards, and resources

112,000 views | 13 articles

The vast volume of neuroscience data and diverse formats across different research communities challenge traditional data management, sharing, and mining approaches. Data sharing mandates and increasing demand for open data have driven the development of advanced methodologies and tools. However, the proliferation of resources makes navigating this landscape difficult for researchers. Awareness of these tools and resources is essential for effective data mining and facilitating discoveries.

This Research Topic explores the available resources, centered around making data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). It covers a broad range of neuroscience research areas, including experimental, computational, and clinical neuroscience research.

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2 | Data governance in African health research: ELSI challenges and solutions

41,000 views | 15 articles

African countries are increasingly enacting data protection legislation, with the African Union (AU) recently adopting the AU Data Protection Framework. These legal developments raise important questions about their impact on ethical data governance in health research: is broad or tiered consent still sufficient, or is specific consent now required? How do individual data rights interact with communitarian values? Should health research receive special regulatory treatment? How should African countries approach AI in healthcare?

This Research Topic identifies and analyzes ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) in contemporary African health research data governance and develops potential solutions. It aims to help policymakers, health researchers, and ELSI practitioners in Africa better navigate and improve data governance practices.

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3 | Joining efforts to improve data quality and harmonization among European population-based cancer registries

35,000 views | 17 articles

Population-based cancer registries provide essential information for quantifying cancer's impact on populations, tracking its evolution, and planning and evaluating cancer control policies and healthcare systems. In recent decades, the quality and quantity of registry information have improved dramatically, aided by technological advances and record linkage.

However, the reliability and utility of registry information depend on data collection quality, while data harmonization remains crucial for effective use and comparability. This Research Topic shares experiences on cancer data quality and harmonization in Europe.

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