Advancing FAIR and Open Research Data Management at Diamond Light Source

Diamond generates petabytes of data each year across a variety of synchrotron techniques. Since beginning of operations, a data archive has provided long-term storage and access to experimental data. However, evolving scientific practices, increasing requirements from funders and society for data to be openly shared and reusable, and the growing importance of AI-enabled research are driving the need for a more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) and Open approach to research data management. Concurrently with the upgrade of Diamond to Diamond II, we are thus gradually transitioning Diamond’s archive to an open data repository designed to maximise the value, visibility and reuse of experimental data. Initially, Diamond is introducing the automatic minting of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for raw data from experimental sessions, providing a persistent and citable reference for the data. Principal investigators will then have the option of selecting subsets of data (individual raw data datasets, groups of datasets associated with a specific sample or experimental configuration, selected data files used to support a particular publication) and minting curated DOIs with additional metadata that are intended to facilitate precise data citation, enabling publications to reference exact data used, while ensuring appropriate attribution and long-term availability. Experimental data may be made openly accessible by the principal investigator through a controlled workflow as soon as the session DOI is minted. This poster presents Diamond's vision, technical developments and planned roadmap for FAIR research data management.