Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, one of the major techniques in structural biology, suffers from the lack of an open database for its primary data, the multidimensional NMR spectra. These spectra are the basis for studies in atomic detail of the structure, dynamics, interactions, and functions of proteins, but are so far generally not made available to other researchers. Our NMRprime initiative for primary bio-NMR open research data establishes a database following the FAIR principles for biomolecular NMR spectra and will explore its coordination with existing open databases for related, derived data, such as the Protein Data Bank (PDB) for protein structures and the Biological Magnetic Resonance Bank (BMRB) for chemical shift assignments. Implementation of the NMRprime framework for the upload, search and download of NMR spectra and associated metadata is underway. The long-term goal, to be achieved together with PDB, BMRB, and journal representatives, is to make the deposition of the underlying NMR spectra an integral part of bio-NMR projects published in peer-reviewed journals in the same way as the requirement to deposit protein structures in the PDB.