The HemaFAIR and HELIOS COST Action successfully concluded the Federated Data Analysis Training School & Hackathon, held in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, from 11–14 May 2026 at the Alion Beach Hotel. The event brought together researchers, clinicians, data scientists, and FAIR data experts from across Europe and beyond for an intensive hands-on training focused on federated analysis, federated learning, FAIR data principles, and semantic technologies.
The training school provided participants with both theoretical foundations and practical experience in privacy-preserving and distributed data analysis approaches that are increasingly important for collaborative biomedical and rare disease research. The programme included sessions on the OMOP Common Data Model, RDF and Semantic Web technologies, ontology-based data access (OBDA), SPARQL querying, DataSHIELD, and federated learning frameworks such as Fed-BioMed and Flower.
Participants had the opportunity to engage in interactive tutorials, practical exercises, and collaborative hackathon activities designed to strengthen skills in data interoperability, FAIRification workflows, and secure multi-institutional data analysis. The final day focused on hands-on federated learning demonstrations and collaborative exploration of federated analysis tools.
The event featured contributions from an international multidisciplinary team of trainers and speakers, including Martijn Kersloot (AUMC), Daphne Wijnbergen (LUMC), Andra Waagmeester (AUMC), Francesco Cremonesi (INRIA), Annalisa Landi (FGB), Demetris Avraam (DataSHIELD), Dimitris Stripelis (Flower Labs), and Petros Kountouris (CING).
The organising committee included representatives from AUMC, LUMC, INRIA, Fondazione Gianni Benzi, and CING, with local organisation coordinated by Petros Kountouris, Carsten W. Lederer, and Sotiroula Chatzimathaiou. Facilitators Kalia Orphanou and Stella Tamana also contributed to the smooth delivery of the training activities.
Beyond the scientific programme, the training school fostered interdisciplinary collaboration, networking, and knowledge exchange among participants from diverse backgrounds and institutions, strengthening ongoing efforts toward secure, interoperable, and FAIR health data ecosystems in rare disease research.
HemaFAIR and HELIOS COST Action would like to sincerely thank all trainers, speakers, organisers, facilitators, and participants for their enthusiasm, engagement, and valuable contributions to the success of the event.
Training materials and educational resources from the event will be made openly available through the HELIOS and HemaFAIR Zenodo communities and the TeSS (Training eSupport System) platform to support continued learning and wider dissemination of FAIR and federated data analysis practices.