Implementing FAIR principles in an every-day laboratory setting remains challenging, especially considering the interdisciplinary nature of experimental work.

The Chair of Micro-and Materials Mechanics at Freiburg University is conducting research at the intersection of experimental and computational material science, mechanical engineering, and biology. The research encompasses the investigation of different materials, such as metallic and polymer-based (meta)materials, as well as biologically inspired engineered materials. Various fabrication techniques, including 3D printing and lithography, are employed in our research.

To address the challenges associated with implementing FAIR principles in the laboratory setting, we focus on the processes in our lab and capture metadata from different experiments, including mechanical testing, 3D printing, imaging and finite element method (FEM) simulation. This approach involves creating customizable, though universal JSON schemas for the metadata associated with common lab processes and outputs, independent from an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) environment. Additionally, a common user interface is developed to allow researchers, undergraduate students and technical staff to extract metadata from specific processes, ensuring that researchers stay within normal workflows while improving documentation and organization. The generated schemas can be then integrated in an ELN, a simulation workflow or automated data analysis.

The metadata schemas will be stored and distributes using local metadata repositories and with this establish a link to related research data and other metadata, e.g. ontologies, which can provide further context. The presented implementation enables automated metadata generation, ensuring consistency and accuracy in research data management in an interdisciplinary lab environment.

Dr. Angelika Gedsun