Despite the difference in size and conditions in Iceland and Sweden, the similarities outweigh the differences in their respective work with making research data accessible.

Here are some of the questions that are high up on the agenda for both countries: the FAIR principles, researchers’ needs for efficient tools, long-term funding of research infrastructures, and how to manage research materials with personal data.

Last month, SND had a visitor from the Icelandic data repository DATICE, located at the University of Iceland. For the past two years, Örnólfur Thorlacius has been responsible for DATICE and their efforts to make Icelandic social science research data more accessible.

"Our operations began to really develop this last year. We’ve got our own Dataverse system for data descriptions, we’ve migrated all datasets to Dataverse, we’ve had staff working with data management, and have also started working on the Icelandic version of ELSST, a thesaurus for the social sciences, says Örnólfur.

Learning from other Nordic countries

DATICE is a Service Provider in the European Research Infrastructure CESSDA.

SND is the Icelandic repository's mentor through the CESSDA Mentorship Programme 2021–2022. The programme will also include tailor-made Dataverse training, provided by the Dutch repository DANS.

What important knowledge have you gained during your visit to Sweden?

One of the hands-on advice that Örnólfur Thorlacius takes away from his visit to Sweden is to work with handbooks and guides, such as the wiki that SND has developed for the SND network.

Read the full article on the SND website.