This week, Rory is joined by Sharif Islam, Data Architect for DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections) -- a new pan-European research infrastructure project which involves working with European museums and natural science collections to create a data-driven research infrastructure to mobilise, unify and deliver bio - and geo-diversity information.

With a unique background and prior expertise in supercomputing, Sharif briefly shares his interesting journey and involvement in various projects including the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded 'Blue Waters' petascale supercomputer, which was operated by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and ran science and engineering codes, with significant contributions to innovation in the field.

Speaking on DiSSCo, Sharif shares that according to one estimate there are approximately 1.5 billion samples in natural history museums, botanical gardens, and other institutes, and building a research infrastructure for natural science collections data is a challenge that draws on his past expertise, for example with log management, file management, movement of data, but with major differences in scale.

As well as sharing his current work on DiSSCo, Sharif goes on to mention other projects he is/has worked on, including BIO DT - the effort to create a digital twin for biodiversity related data, and the implementation of FAIR - specifically, going from strategy to action. On the latter topic, Sharif shares his thoughts on the importance of training and metadata, as well as the importance of data stewards and foundations for FAIR implementation.

Join us for the full conversation, which also spans the disconnect between highly technical development in FDO and much broader range of activities related to FAIRifying data, comparative development of FAIR in north america and europe, and Open Infrastructure as a way to enabling FAIR!