# Enhancing FAIRness of the FaceBase Research Data Hub

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2021 · $252,109

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The goal of the FaceBase III Hub is to create a data repository to serve the entire community of
dental and craniofacial researchers by sharing diverse data related to craniofacial development
and dysmorphia, as well as other research communities that can leverage the diverse data that
is in the FaceBase repository.
FaceBase was designed to follow FAIR data principles: that data be Findable, Accessible,
Interoperable, and Reusable. To date, we have had significant success getting new research
teams to submit data to FaceBase in a manner that adheres to FAIR. However, since the start
of FaceBase III, the digital repository community has developed a new set of principles
designed to promote trust in the data contained in a repository with the goal of promoting
broader reuse of the data within the repository. The TRUST principles of Transparency,
Responsibility. User Focus, Sustainability, and Technology have been identified as core to
increasing users’ confidence in a data-repository and hence promoting data use and reuse.
Surveys and interviews of FaceBase users indicate that FaceBase is perceived within the
community as being a high-quality trustworthy repository. However, a deliberate application of
TRUST guidelines has the advantage of making FaceBase commitment to these principles
more explicit, increasing our ability to promote the use of FaceBase data outside of the core
craniofacial research community, and better serving our users across the NIH research
community.
In this proposal, we seek to achieve these goals by explicitly identifying, defining, and adopting
operational principles in FaceBase to meet community agreed-upon standards for TRUST (Aim
1). A critical part of TRUST is to define specific metrics that enable one to evaluate the impact of
the data repository. To this end, we will leverage the extensive built-in analytics that FaceBase
collects to define key performance metrics of impact and produce a reporting structure to
disseminate those metrics to the FaceBase user community (Aim 2).
Ultimately, the goal is for the FaceBase Hub to become a certified trusted data repository.
Certification will establish greater credibility for the FaceBase Hub with our user community and
with users less familiar with FaceBase. Long term, the adoption of TRUST principles will ensure
that datasets deposited with us and entrusted to our care will be maintained at the highest level
of quality.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10408536
- **Project number:** 3U01DE028729-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Yang Chai
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $252,109
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10408536

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10408536, Enhancing FAIRness of the FaceBase Research Data Hub (3U01DE028729-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10408536. Licensed CC0.

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