FAIR4Chem Award – Terms of Participation

Friedrich Schiller University Jena
President
Fürstengraben 1
07743 Jena
Germany

The Friedrich Schiller University Jena is a legal entity under German public law. It is legally represented by the President Prof. Dr Andreas Marx.

FAIR4Chem Award 2025

Published datasets from chemical research that excellently fulfill the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) are subject of the FAIR4Chem Award 2025 competition. A description of the dataset in a research article, without publication of the primary data, is not sufficient. The award will be given to the dataset that best meets the FAIR principles.

Participation in the FAIR4Chem competition is open from September 1 to November 17, 2024.

Only scientists working at a university or non-university research institution based in the Federal Republic of Germany at the time of participation are eligible to take part. The decisive factor is the affiliation of at least one author to the dataset.

Self-nomination of published datasets from chemical research is permitted for participation. Multiple submissions of a dataset by different co-authors are not permitted and will lead to exclusion from the competition. Upon submission of the dataset, the consent of all co-authors to participate in the competition must be obtained.

Private persons are excluded from participation. Datasets in which at least one author is or has been funded by the NFDI4Chem consortium (DFG project number 441958208) are not eligible. Participants who do not meet the eligibility requirements will be excluded from the competition. Winnings may be subsequently withdrawn or reclaimed. 

The winners of previous FAIR4Chem Awards are excluded from participation in the FAIR4Chem Award 2025.

Datasets submitted for previous editions of the FAIR4Chem Award may not be resubmitted unchanged. However, if these datasets have been substantially adapted in terms of meeting the FAIR principles (e.g. replacement of proprietary data formats with open data formats), they may be resubmitted. In this case, an accompanying document must be submitted explaining which significant adjustments have been made.

The act of participation consists of submitting a published dataset via the provided web form on the NFDI4Chem consortium website. The affiliation to a university or non-university research institution located in the Federal Republic of Germany will be derived from the associated publication of the dataset or the bibliographic information of the dataset in the place of publication (e.g. repository). By submitting a dataset, the participant declares that they have read and agree to the terms and conditions of the competition.

After the end of the participation period, the NFDI4Chem consortium will evaluate the submitted datasets. The evaluation will take place in a two-step process. In the first step, the submitted datasets are evaluated using published and freely accessible FAIR assessment tools. In the second step, the best datasets will be evaluated by a jury to determine the dataset to be awarded. 

The winner will be notified by the NFDI4Chem consortium via email if they win the FAIR4Chem Award. The winner must respond to the prize notification within 4 weeks, otherwise the right to claim the prize will be lost.

The prize money amounts to 500.00 (five hundred) Euros, which can be used freely, and is financed by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie. The winner of the prize is the author of the dataset who submitted the dataset for the FAIR4Chem Award. The prize money can only be awarded to scientists who are working at a university or non-university research institution based in the Federal Republic of Germany at the time of participation.

The award ceremony will take place as part of the JCF Spring Symposium from 12-15 March 2025 in Münster.

A talk about the winning dataset by the awardee will be part of the award ceremony. Travel and accommodation costs (according to DFG guidelines) as well as participation fees of the awardee for the award ceremony will be covered by the NFDI4Chem consortium in addition to the prize money.

Friedrich Schiller University Jena will process the personal data of the participants on the basis of its privacy policy and exclusively for the purpose of conducting the competition under the above-mentioned conditions on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit a) GDPR. For all questions regarding data protection in connection with the competition, please contact the data protection officer at Friedrich Schiller University Jena:

Dr Jana Schleicher (datenschutz@uni-jena.de).

Friedrich Schiller University Jena reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of participation. The competition may be cancelled or terminated at any time without notice and without giving reasons. Friedrich Schiller University Jena accepts no responsibility for lost chances of winning due to technical faults on the websites. The legal process is excluded. Should any conflict arise between the German language version of these terms and conditions of participation and any translation hereof, the German language version shall prevail.