Microbiome samples are inherently defined by the environment in which they are found. Therefore, data that provide context and enable interpretation of measurements produced from biological samples, often referred to as metadata, are critical. Important contributions have been made in the development of community-driven metadata standards; however, these standards have not been uniformly embraced by the microbiome research community. To understand how these standards are being adopted, or the barriers to adoption, across research domains, institutions, and funding agencies, the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) hosted a workshop in October 2019 that included representatives from the GeneLab team. This report provides a summary of discussions that took place throughout the workshop, as well as outcomes of the working groups initiated at the workshop and includes GeneLab Scientists, Daniel Berrios, Sylvain Costes and Jonathan Galazka.
The NMDC pilot initiative will continue to work across the standards and microbiome research communities to reduce barriers to data sharing, recognize data contributions, and make microbiome data FAIR.
Read the Full Report: https://msystems.asm.org/content/6/1/e01194-20
