The known challenge of underutilization of data and biological material from biorepositories as potential resources for medical research has been the focus of discussion for over a decade. Recently developed guidelines for improved data availability and reusability-entitled FAIR Principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability)-are likely to address only parts of the problem. In this article, we argue that biological material and data should be viewed as a unified resource. This approach would facilitate access to complete provenance information, which is a prerequisite for reproducibility and meaningful integration of the data. A unified view also allows for optimization of long-term storage strategies, as demonstrated in the case of biobanks. We propose an extension of the FAIR Principles to include the following additional components: (1) quality aspects related to research reproducibility and meaningful reuse of the data, (2) incentives to stimulate effective enrichment of data sets and biological material collections and its reuse on all levels, and (3) privacy-respecting approaches for working with the human material and data. These FAIR-Health principles should then be applied to both the biological material and data. We also propose the development of common guidelines for cloud architectures, due to the unprecedented growth of volume and breadth of medical data generation, as well as the associated need to process the data efficiently.

BBMRI at and Medical University Graz Graz Austria

BBMRI cz and Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute Brno Czech Republic

BBMRI ERIC Graz Austria

BBMRI gr and Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas Heraklion Greece

BBMRI IARC and International Agency for Research on Cancer Lyon France

BBMRI it and CRS4 Pula Italy

BBMRI it and Universita degli Studi di Milano Bicocca Milano Italy

BBMRI mt and University of Malta Msida Malta

BBMRI nl and Leiden University Medical Center Leiden Netherlands

BBMRI pl and University of Łódź Łódź Poland

BBMRI pl and Wroclaw Research Centre EIT Wroclaw Poland

BBMRI tr and Acibadem University Istanbul Turkey

Helmholtz Zentrum München Munich Germany

INSERM Paris France

Technical University of Munich Munich Germany

TMF e 5 Berlin Germany

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BBMRI-ERIC's contributions to research and knowledge exchange on COVID-19