Existing food nutrition security (FNS) data, knowledge, and tools (resources) for agri-food sciences are unFAIR. Rather than being readily found, accessible, interoperable, or reusable (FAIR), these resources are fragmented, lack critical mass, and access is unevenly distributed. FNS-Cloud is developing a first-generation cloud solution, federating existing and emerging datasets, and integrating tools and services to support re-use by user communities.
Bringing together IT specialists and FNS researchers to build something new is always a challenging and the project started in October 2019, just months before we started working remotely!
Since September 2021, there has been a noticeable increase in tangible outputs and greater emphasis on sustainability, specifically what cloud will look like after funding has ended.
A central authentication and authorisation infrastructure (AAI), compatible with the European Open Science Cloud, has been implemented for FNS Cloud (cloud has no hyphen to distinguish it from the project, FNS-Cloud) and the catalogues, indexing FNS resources, has made accessible to the consortium. If you have FNS resources that could be included in the catalogues, or any suggestions, contact admin@fns-cloud.eu
There is a rolling programme of training and education activities for those working in FNS domains to improve confidence in exploitation of resources. It is well established that professionals’ engagement with new technologies is determined by need to know, previous experience of new learning, context in their working life, and self-determination. To this end, FNS-Cloud has established a community of practice (myFNSCloud) to share information, experiences, and resources, not only with the FNS-Cloud consortium but also user communities. If you would like to access myFNSCloud, and are willing to help us grow and refine this online community, contact education@myfnscloud.eu.
Importantly, FNS-Cloud is no longer presenting just our ambitions, but also key exploitable outcomes from a range of activities at events and publications. For example, approaches for food matching in mapping data and tailored data analysis approaches are being tested. Cross-linked ontologies have been upgraded, with entities describing food-drug and microbiome-diet relationships. New approaches for food monitoring surveys and collecting data to explore dietary consumption patterns have also been created. Monte Carlo Risk Assessment (MCRA, RIVM, – NL) software has been updated with new functionalities, and total diet study (TDS) data visualisation have been developed for implementation via an app for consumers. Finally, tools and datasets from use cases (existing data) and field laboratories (emerging data) are ready to be combined in the demonstrators that will show how data can be interrogated to answer research questions.
Food Nutrition Security Cloud (FNS-Cloud) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme (H2020-EU.3.2.2.3. – A sustainable and competitive agri-food industry) under Grant Agreement No. 863059. Information and views set out in this article and on the website are those of the Consortium, and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion or position of the European Union. Neither European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained herein.
