I am marine biologist, working as senior marine biocurator at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). I have extensive fieldwork experience in studying the marine microbiome in all Oceans of the World.  Since the beginning of the Tara Oceans expedition, over fifteen years ago, my work has focused on designing better ways to contextualise microbiome data. As Co-Chair of the FAIR Microbiome Data Working Group, I wish to lead concrete actions that improve the quality of metadata and the exploitation of big data across disciplines and 'omics domains in order to address societal issues.