The life sciences are one of the biggest suppliers of scientific data, but without metadata, this data is meaningless. The FAIR Data Station is a lightweight application that aims to support researchers in managing their data according to the FAIR principles. The station consists of 3 modules:

The form generation module creates a metadata template, based on the minimal information model(s) you select.

• The selection of models depends on your experiment (e. the minimally required information describing your samples), and can consist of both mandatory and optional attributes. A list of terms for different experiments can be found here.
• The metadata template generated is an Excel workbook, of which the header rows contains machine-actionable attribute names. Next, you can start registering your sample metadata in this file. The open Excel format allows for offline, on-site metadata registration and supports collaboration and information collection in high throughput.

The validation module allows you to check the format of the recorded values in your metadata file at any time. This is done using a package library of 40 frequently used minimal information checklists. The validation module also checks for activation of unsolicited auto-complete and auto-correction functions and for mismatches between identifiers used at the different ISA levels.

The resource module. After validation of your data, your Excel workbook is automatically exported as a Resource Description Framework (RDF). This document allows you to search through metadata from different programming languages and incorporate the metadata in your analysis workflow. It also allows you to search through multiple research projects that are centred around a common theme. If you want to publish sequence data, you can use the resource module to convert your Excel workbook to an European Nucleotide Archive-compatible XML metadata file.