On 19 and 20 October, there was a somewhat different meeting for the members of the SND network. It was held as two virtual sessions for open discussion and views on the future development of SND, in preparation for the coming grants application to the Swedish Research Council.
In order to set a direction for a future SND, SND is reaching out to various groups of stakeholders to ask their opinions and wishes. In these two network meetings, representatives from the national SND network had an opportunity to discuss and voice their views on what a future SND might be. Their opinions will be incorporated into the material that will be compiled for the grants application that SND will be sending to the Swedish Research Council for the 2023–2027 funding period.
Among the areas discussed were which designated communities that SND should focus on in the future, which technical resources and services SND should provide, how the in-consortium collaboration can be strengthened and developed, how to relate to various national stakeholders, and which role SND can play on an international stage for more open access to research data.
Latest news from the SND management
The network meetings give SND a chance to present status updates from various projects and activities, as well as information about what’s to come. SND Head of IT, Johan Fihn Marberg, introduced the latest news from the new SND IT Forum. Among the themes discussed in the forum is the IT solution for launching local storage of research data in the SND network member institutions, which a joint development project in partnership with SUNET. During his presentation, Johan Fihn Marberg said that the initial development phase has now finished, and that the storage solution is soon ready to be tested by external users.
Elisabeth Strandhagen, SND Deputy Director, informed the participants that SND has begun the process of renewing its CoreTrustSeal certification. This certification is renewed every three years, and is one way of safeguarding secure and sustainable research data management. In parallel to the SND certification process, there is also a pilot project to make four of the network member institutions certified.
SND Director Max Petzold concluded the introduction to the meeting by providing an overview of the activities during the application period and the groups who will be involved in this process. He also welcomed the National Veterinary Institute, SVA, as the 35th member of the SND network.
Did you miss the 19 & 20 October meetings? On 6 november the SND network are once again invited to discuss and influence the contents of the SND grants application to the Swedish Research Council.