SND’s latest network meeting highlighted some of the international organisations and initiatives working to develop and promote an open research data landscape. There was also an update from SND and discussions about a shared national storage solution, assessment criteria for FAIR data and more.
Ron Dekker, Chief Executive Officer of CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives), opened the meeting by speaking about the importance of research data infrastructures. His presentation, with the somewhat provocative title “Why not wait for Google?”, addressed the need for effective services that facilitate access to data for the benefit of both researchers and the general public. He drew parallels to Google and AirBnb to explain the relationship between services that provide data and those that produce and re-use them. Just as AirBnb provides a ‘mediation’ service for users, the research community also needs ‘intermediaries’ that instil confidence and ensure that the material is reliable and useful. SND’s Iris Alfredsson went on to outline the CESSDA-related work being carried out in Sweden. This was followed by a discussion about how the network can engage researchers’ interest in and raise awareness of CESSDA’s services.
There were also short presentations of other international research data initiatives and collaborations such as RDA (Research Data Alliance), CLARIN (Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure), Core Trust Seal, DataCite and DDI (Data Documentation Initiative).
Closer to home
SND’s Director Max Petzold and IT Architect Olof Olsson provided a progress update on a shared national storage solution for research data, which could help Swedish universities and university colleges to increase access to data. Magnus Eriksson from The Swedish Research Council spoke about assessment criteria for FAIR data and SND’s Jeremy Azzopardi gave participants a preview of SND’s DAU-handbook, which will act as a resource for universities and university colleges to fulfil FAIR criteria.
Presentations from the network meeting.