FAIR Computational Workflows

Keynote at German Conference on Bioinformatics 2021 https://gcb2021.de/ FAIR Computational Workflows Computational workflows capture precise descriptions of the steps and data dependencies needed to carry out computational data pipelines, analysis and simulations in many areas of Science, including the Life Sciences. The use of computational workflows to manage these multi-step computational processes has accelerated in the past few years driven by the need for scalable data processing, the exchange of processing know-how, and the desire for more reproducible (or at least transparent) and quality assured processing methods. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has significantly highlighted the value of workflows. This increased interest in workflows has been matched by the number of workflow management systems available to scientists (Galaxy, Snakemake, Nextflow and 270+ more) and the number of workflow services like registries and monitors. There is also recognition that workflows are first class, publishable Research Objects just as data are. They deserve their own FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and services that cater for their dual roles as explicit method description and software method execution [1]. To promote long-term usability and uptake by the scientific community, workflows (as well as the tools that integrate them) should become FAIR+R(eproducible), and citable so that author’s credit is attributed fairly and accurately. The work on improving the FAIRness of workflows has already started and a whole ecosystem of tools, guidelines and best practices has been under development to reduce the time needed to adapt, reuse and extend existing scientific workflows. An example is the EOSC-Life Cluster of 13 European Biomedical Research Infrastructures which is developing a FAIR Workflow Collaboratory based on the ELIXIR Research Infrastructure for Life Science Data Tools ecosystem. While there are many tools for addressing different aspects of FAIR workflows, many challenges remain for describing, annotating, and exposing scientific workflows so that they can be found, understood and reused by other scientists. This keynote will explore the FAIR principles for computational workflows in the Life Science using the EOSC-Life Workflow Collaboratory as an example. [1] Carole Goble, Sarah Cohen-Boulakia, Stian Soiland-Reyes,Daniel Garijo, Yolanda Gil, Michael R. Crusoe, Kristian Peters, and Daniel Schober FAIR Computational Workflows Data Intelligence 2020 2:1-2, 108-121 https://doi.org/10.1162/dint_a_00033.