Our team was delighted to present FIDELIS at the 50th annual conference of IASSIST (International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology), held from 3-6 June, 2025. The golden anniversary conference brought together approximately 240 participants from all over the world in Bristol, United Kingdom. The attendees were key stakeholders of FIDELIS – professionals working with information technology and data repositories and services.
We know that the digital repository landscape is highly diverse: repositories vary in maturity, domain, geographical location, and targeted users. We also know that FAIR-enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDRs) are key building blocks of the EOSC Federation, supporting researchers to store, share, process, analyse and reuse FAIR research outputs within and across domains and borders. Our FIDELIS presentation built on our vision on how FIDELIS, as a TDR Network, could unite the repository community beyond the scope of finite project efforts.
Our talk highlighted the wide range of expectations and requirements the repositories are currently facing and explained how FIDELIS seeks to foster common understanding. We believe that a key tool to support reaching consensus is the TTRAM (Transparent Trustworthy Repository Attributes Matrix), for which we are currently seeking feedback. Comments and suggestions are welcome in this shared document by August 15, 2025.
There was clear and considerable interest in the FIDELIS project and in the FIDELIS Network. This interest was partly driven by recent data rescue efforts that emphasise the importance of trustworthy data repositories and the benefits of networking. The questions and suggestions from our peers provided great insights that we will loop back into the project.
FIDELIS is more than a project — it's a Network and a movement toward a more connected, resilient, and FAIR European data infrastructure. By fostering trust, transparency, and collaboration, and by providing training and support for the adoption of solutions, FIDELIS is laying the groundwork for a future in which digital repositories are truly interoperable, trustworthy, and sustainable.