FIDELIS Training & Support programme

Trustworthiness is a continuous journey, and all Trustworthy Digital Repositories and those aspiring to become one encounter many similar challenges and experiences. National and international connections can be useful for peer exchange and to build required or desired policies, standards, and guidance together. This programme aims to provide support for knowledge exchange and welcomes mentors with experiences in a wide range of self-assessments and certification for trustworthiness. This may include:

• Experience in applying for - or renewing - formal certified status (e.g. CoreTrustSeal, Nestor seal, ISO 16363);
• Experience in self-assessing repository practices;
• Experiences with national infrastructures and collaboration initiatives;
• Experiences with developing national policies and/or shared standards;
• Experience in making information about the repository governance, policies, sustainability and/or workflows transparent
• Experience in aligning repository functions with guiding principles such as FAIR, CARE, and TRUST.
   

Please note that the list of examples above is not exhaustive and we welcome additional suggestions from applicants on experiences that might be shared. The support programme will be created to provide insights and advice for peers looking to start or advance their own certification process, or to continuously improve their trustworthiness and transparency independently from such schemes. This support programme topic relates to TTRAM Activity/Function 14 Policy & Standards.

The FIDELIS mentors you will be working with: Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) [lead], GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Gdańsk University of Technology, French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Recherche Data Gouv

Trustworthy Digital Repositories play a critical role in providing long-term access to data that are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). Repositories often have a wide range of policies and procedural documents in place which govern what deposits will be accepted and from whom; which format(s) will be accepted; the level of curation that deposited items will receive; and how long deposited items will be retained. Increasingly, there is an emphasis on making much of this information transparent to improve trustworthiness. This programme aims to provide support for knowledge exchange about formal and informal approaches that are being defined or undertaken within repositories to define and implement policies and to make this work more transparent. We welcome applications representing a broad range of experiences under this theme. This may include:

• Experience in developing repository policies
• Experience in implementing repository policies
• Engaging with relevant stakeholders on policy development and implementation
• Assessing resources required to implement and/or monitor policies
• Harmonisation of policies across repositories and/or other stakeholders
• Making policies and procedural information more transparent
• Aligning with policies of other stakeholders (e.g., funding bodies; disciplines, RPOs)

Please note that the list of examples above is not exhaustive and we welcome additional suggestions from applicants on experiences that might be shared.

This support programme topic relates to TTRAM Activity/Function 14 Policy & Standards.

The FIDELIS mentors you will be working with: Digital Curation Centre (DCC) [lead], GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Swiss Bioinformatics Institute (SIB)

Repository services and functionality should reflect the needs of the communities they serve.   Engagement with end users helps to ensure that the repository is fit for purpose but can also lead to better co-curation of content during the earlier stages in the research lifecycle and increased use of deposited content. This programme will provide support for knowledge exchange on approaches to fostering engagement between repositories and their users. We welcome applications representing a broad range of experiences under this theme. This may include:

• Experience in gathering user requirements
• Experience in supporting creation and improvement of metadata and other documentation
• Highlighting the benefits of using (curated) repositories
• Promoting the repositories to different stakeholders
• Evaluating ways and formats of communication including language use
• Relationship building with depositors
• Developing community engagement plans

Please note that the list of examples above is not exhaustive and we welcome additional suggestions from applicants on experiences that might be shared.

This support programme topic relates to TTRAM Activity/Function : External Engagement

The FIDELIS mentors you will be working with: The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) [lead], University of Belgrade , Digital Curation Centre (DCC)

All actions that lead to trustworthiness require good foundation stones - namely, the technical infrastructures on which repositories rely. Both at hardware and software levels, building/maintaining a qualitative infrastructure and actively working on enabling proper data curation are key to many higher level activities. This support programme welcomes mentors with experiences in building, maintaining and improving high quality technical infrastructures for digital repositories, that enable and facilitate data curation. This may include:

• Provision of hardware, software and IT services, including experience with service management methodologies
• Experience in providing resilient infrastructures with appropriate mechanisms (failover, loadbalancing, backup processes, etc.)
• Experience with assessing and/or advancing the levels of curation and preservation offered by the repository
• Experience with ensuring digital objects meet a defined level of quality and standards compliance before they are made available for reuse
• Experience with providing  discovery systems and making metadata available for harvesting
• Experience in providing secure access to sensitive data
• Experience with setting up workflows and approaches to meet defined criteria for access and reuse and potentially to enable preservation, including any curation steps like conversions to file formats and any additions to metadata.
• Monitoring the user community technical needs
• Experience with creating Technical Infrastructure Statement, Technical Infrastructure Plan, and/or IT Service Management methodologies
  
  Please note that the list of examples above is not exhaustive and we welcome additional suggestions from applicants on experiences that might be shared.

This support programme topic relates to TTRAM Activity/Functions 28 Storage & Integrity; 29 Technical Infrastructure; and 30 Security.

The FIDELIS mentors you will be working with: French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Recherche Data Gouv [lead], Gdańsk University of Technology, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Belgrade

Running a trustworthy and transparent repository service requires the availability of skilled staff and the effective management of human resources to fulfil the repository’s current mission and to realise future aspirations. This programme aims to provide support for knowledge exchange about formal or informal approaches that can be undertaken within repositories to build capacity among staff and to make capacity building activities more visible and reusable. We welcome applications representing a broad range of experiences under this theme. This may include:

• Mapping staff competency against repository functions
• Identifying knowledge and skills gaps
• Defining skills development plans and learning paths for staff
• Improving pedagogic capabilities amongst educators and trainers
• Making educational resources more reusable and transparent
• Facilitating peer-to-peer knowledge exchange activities
• Securing external skills to fill gaps
• Resourcing professional development for staff
• Provide support for career progression

Please note that the list of examples above is not exhaustive and we welcome additional suggestions from applicants on experiences that might be shared.

This support programme topic relates to TTRAM Activity/Function 17: People & Expertise.

The FIDELIS mentors you will be working with: Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Digital Curation Centre (DCC), Gdańsk University of Technology, Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)

FIDELIS will run four open calls for training and support activities
2 for the Support for the Adoption of Solutions
2 for the Peer-to-peer mentoring programme
All calls will be open for a period of two months. This results in the following timelines for when each open call will be available for applications:

First open call for Peer-to-peer Mentoring programme: February-April 2026
First open call for Support for the Adoption of Solutions: April-June 2026

Second open call for Peer-to-peer Mentoring programme: January-March 2027
Second open call for Support for the Adoption of Solutions: March-May 2027

Delivery of the training and support can start from one month after the closing of the call, but this may vary across calls and support offers. Dates of delivery are clearly indicated on the information pages around any active open call.

Open calls will be available for two types of training and support:
2 open calls for Support for the Adoption of Solutions
2 open calls for Peer-to-peer mentoring
For more information about these different types of training, as well as the open training activities, see the FIDELIS training and support area.

We welcome applications from individuals or small teams from public and private organisations in the repository landscape. The training and support primarily targets repositories, but if a support offer is also open to other service providers this will be explicitly mentioned in the support offer description.

Please note that individuals and teams from organisations that are part of the FIDELIS consortium are not eligible to receive financial support. However, they are welcome to apply to participate as observers in the support for the adoption of solutions and as unpaid mentors in the peer to peer support programme if this role is indicated as available. Before submitting an application, please consult the list of FIDELIS partners.

Please note that applications from countries outside of Horizon Europe or the Associated Countries are not eligible to receive financial support. However, they are welcome to apply to participate as observers in the support for the adoption of solutions and as unpaid mentors in the peer to peer support programme if this role is indicated as available.

The amount of financial support that is included in a support offer will be explicitly mentioned in the support offer description. This amount will reflect the estimated time investment of participation in the support offer.

Financial support for the Adoption of Solutions will never exceed 10.000 Euros. Financial support for the mentoring will never exceed 5.000 Euros. All grants will be received after satisfactory completion of participation in the support offer, which is determined by contribution to the Implementation Story.

Every organisation that applies for the open calls can receive up to maximally 20.000 Euros of financial support from FIDELIS in total.

Financial support to third parties (grantees) raises the following contractual obligations:

Prevention of Conflict of interest;
Confidentiality and security;
Ethics and values;
Visibility;
Information, and;
Record-keeping.

Under FIDELIS’s obligations to its funder, concerned with checks, reviews, audits and investigations, certain bodies (i.e., the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), and the European Court of Auditors (ECA)) can also exercise their rights towards the recipients of funding from FIDELIS.

The above are in line with the European Commission’s rules for providing support to third parties. Full information on all of the above will be contained in the contracts issued to successful applicants.

Yes - you are very welcome to apply to participate as an observer in the support for the adoption of solutions and/or as an unpaid mentor in the peer to peer support programme if the role is indicated as available. Please be sure to make this clear in your application.

To apply to any support offer in any of the open calls, an application form must be filled in and submitted during the period in which the call is open. Accessing and submitting the application form will be done through the TRUST Grants platform. To access this platform, you need to create an account  for the EDEN-FIDELIS website first. After logging in on the website, you will then be able to access the open calls dashboard. You can save a draft of your application and return to it at a later date if necessary.

Your application will be evaluated by three separate evaluators, each with no conflict of interest, according to a structured rubric. The evaluations indicate whether your application fits with the support that will be offered and whether you satisfy the expectations set out in the call description. We aim to ensure a good representation of different viewpoints so we will aim to ensure a good balance from different geographic areas, different repository types and levels of maturity, and different disciplines.
These evaluations will not be shared. Successful applicants will be published on the website after the conclusion of the evaluations.

Each support offer details the maximum number of participants supported in their description. 

If you have registered for one or more support offers but would like to retract this registration, please contact: training-fidelis@postit.csc.fi

Please do reach out to retract if you are unable to participate after all, as this will allow other repositories to participate in the support offer instead.

An Implementation Story is a public document that describes the experiences, challenges and lessons learned during the training and support. All participants to the support offers will contribute to the production of an implementation story. The main purpose is to provide others with useful information, tips, and advice to improve their trustworthy attributes.

Templates will be provided to ensure consistency in the presentation of the stories. One Implementation Story will be created for each support offer, with all participants included as co-authors. These will be made available via the FIDELIS website and Zenodo community.

Implementation Stories were originally developed as part of the FAIRsFAIR project. They illustrate good practices in research communities and organisations to support the implementation of the FAIR principles. Links to the FAIRsFAIR Implementation Stories can be found on the FAIRsFAIR website. This practice continued in the FAIR-IMPACT project, where FAIR Implementation Stories were created by training participants and are publicly available.

No, becoming a member of the FIDELIS Network follows its own process. Find out more information on how to become a Network member here. 

No, it is not mandatory to participate in training to become a FIDELIS Network member. Find out more information on how to become a Network member here. 

Yes, FIDELIS Network members are very welcome to apply to our open calls. Please do consider if you adhere to the other eligibility criteria (see “Who can apply to the open calls?”) before submitting your application. 

The Training and Support offered in the FIDELIS project have to adhere to the rules governing open calls for cascading grants. Therefore, we do not prioritise applications from FIDELIS Network members over other applications with higher evaluations. FIDELIS Network members will have closer contact with the FIDELIS Training and Support team to ask any questions or share suggestions to help shape the programme into the future.

Yes, you are able to submit applications to multiple open calls. However there is a maximum to the financial support you are able to receive of 15.000 Euros. Should you surpass this limit, you may still participate without receiving financial support, if this role is available for the open call.

For any further questions or information about the open calls, please contact us at: training-fidelis@postit.csc.fi 

Absolutely! We aim to provide the training and support that is most desired by the community and therefore appreciate hearing any suggestions from the community on topics or solutions that we could develop training or support on. Please include information on relevant resource links as well as existing experts that may collaborate on the training in your suggestion. Note that we cannot guarantee each suggestion will be executed, taking into account our training strategy, timeline, and resources.

If you have a suggestion to share, please contact us at: training-fidelis@postit.csc.fi 

FIDELIS will offer at least four thematic support programmes that mentors can apply to participate in for each open call. Each thematic area will be broad enough to allow for a range of different kinds of knowledge and practical experiences to be proposed by potential mentors through the short application form.

Mentors are those who have some knowledge and/or practical  experiences to share in relation to the selected theme. Successful applicants to the open call for mentors will work with a minimum of two members of the FIDELIS team and up to four other mentors to co-design and deliver the support programme to foster practical skills acquisition or knowledge exchange in the particular thematic area. 

No! We want to have a broad range of experience represented in the mentors. You just need to have something useful to contribute to the topic. 

You should apply in a personal capacity as it is your experience that we will be leveraging.

Mentees are those who will benefit from knowledge exchange by participating in the support programme.Please note that we believe all participants will have valuable views to share and there is an expectation that mentees participate actively so that knowledge exchange is bi-directional.

No. Mentees will not receive any financial support for their participation. However, participation in the support programme will be free for mentees.

You can use this webform to express interest in joining one or more support programmes as a mentee.

Once the mentors have been selected, the support programme sessions will be co-developed with FIDELIS mentors. The programme details will be shared with these with those expressing interest so they can then decide if they wish to register to join. Participation in the programme for mentees is free. 
 

As part of your application you will be asked to provide:

• Your name, contact details and organisational affiliation.
• The country you are based in;
• To confirm which Support Programme you are applying to participate in;
• Confirmation of commitment to the planned 10 day activities and confirmation of contribution to the co-authored Implementation Story.

In addition to this information, you will be asked to clearly demonstrate the following:

• A brief summary of the relevant knowledge and/or practical experience that you can share in relation to the thematic area you are applying to participate in.
• Provide a short summary of any policies, publications, tools, services, guidance and/or training that you have been involved in developing that may be relevant for this thematic area.
• How you will share and disseminate the experiences and lessons learned in your wider community.

Each support programme will have its own design based on the topic and intended outcomes. 

All Peer-to-peer mentoring programmes will include:

• Financial support for successful applicants to co-design and deliver the support programme with FIDELIS mentors. A maximum of 5,000 euros will be paid to successful applicants upon successful completion of the support programme.
• Technical infrastructure and administrative support to schedule and deliver the virtual meetings and/or workshops.
• Pedagogical support for the mentors to guide the co-development of the support programme.
• A template to support co-authoring of the Implementation Story and peer review of the story.
• Coordination of the open webinar to share the outcomes of the support programme.
   

Each support programme will have its own design based on the topic and intended outcomes.

In general, for the Peer-to-peer mentoring, you will be expected to:

• Attend the contact points, workshops, and peer exchange agreed on;
• Contribute to the creation of the support programme;
• Contribute to the delivery of the support programme;
• Contribute to the collective Implementation Story, where experiences and lessons learned about the solution will be publicly shared.