Author Archives: Philipp Conzett

UiT The Arctic University of Norway, through its coordinating role of the national research data repository DataverseNO, will lead a major new Nordic-Baltic collaboration on research data management. The project, Nordic-Baltic Dataverse Hub (NaisH), has been awarded funding by NordForsk under the call for Nordic Research Infrastructure Hubs.

The five-year project (2026–2030) aims to establish a sustainable framework for collaboration among research data repositories in the Nordic-Baltic region, leveraging the Dataverse software as a shared technological backbone. By fostering alignment, resource sharing, and innovation, the hub will strengthen the availability, interoperability, and trustworthiness of research data infrastructures across six countries: Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The project consortium – comprising UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the Danish e-Infrastructure Consortium (DeiC), the University of Iceland, the University of the Faroe Islands, Rīga Stradiņš University, and Kaunas University of Technology – will jointly advance key activities, including:

• Developing shared resources and guidelines for FAIR-enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDRs).
• Supporting repositories in achieving CoreTrustSeal (re-)certification.
• Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) responsibly into repository functions.
• Building human capacity through training programs and mentorship initiatives.
• Promoting Nordic perspectives in international networks like EOSC, FIDELIS, and the Global Dataverse Community Consortium (GDCC).

The hub will create significant Nordic added value by reducing duplication of effort, enhancing cost-effectiveness, and positioning the Nordic-Baltic region as a global leader in Open Science and research data management. It aligns with the FAIR and TRUST principles, the European Commission’s guidelines on responsible AI use, and UiT’s strategic commitment to openness and transparency in research.

“This project is a milestone for UiT and DataverseNO. It strengthens our role as a national and international leader in research data management and Open Science,” says Philipp Conzett, Senior Research Librarian at UiT and Project Leader of the Nordic-Baltic Dataverse Hub.

For more information about the NordForsk Nordic RI Hub program and DataverseNO, visit https://www.nordforsk.org/news/new-infrastructure-hubs-granted-funding and https://info.dataverse.no/.

(Text: Idun Knutsdatter Østerdal)

Curators at NTNU University Library have quality-assured and published over 200 datasets in DataverseNO – an important step toward strengthening open science. It has never been easier for researchers to share data securely and openly.

Open Data Across Disciplines and Groups

Dataset number 200 in NTNU’s institutional collection of the DataverseNO research data repository was published by Dr. Leon Li and Prof. R. Jason Hearst at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering, NTNU. Hearst’s research group alone accounts for 15 of NTNU’s datasets in DataverseNO, and sees great value in the service:

DataverseNO is an essential service, not only to meet funding requirements, but to promote and embody open science practices.  We post all data from our published works at DataverseNO and include the data DOIs in our articles.  –  R. Jason Hearst

The group’s datasets have been downloaded over 600 times, illustrating how DataverseNO makes data easily accessible. Li adds: “DataverseNO provides a great platform for researchers to share their data openly, which is essential for collaborations across different groups within our research field.”

Upper left hand photo: (From left to right) Dr. Leon Li, Prof. Jason Hearst, Dr. Srikar Yadala in the NTNU-EPT wind tunnel. Photo Credit: Youssef Elashmawi
Lower left hand photo: The three dataset authors. Photo Credit for the headshots is Maren Agdestein
Right hand photo: Data acquisition in the wind tunnel lab with scientific cameras in the background. Photo Credit: Leon Li

What Does Reaching 200 Datasets Mean?

With more than 200 datasets available, NTNU contributes to more open and reusable research, strengthening transparency and impact. This milestone demonstrates NTNU’s growing commitment to open science and infrastructure.

First Librarian Fredrik Sahlström, responsible for DataverseNO at NTNU, is very pleased with the development: “We have seen a steady increase in the number of published datasets in NTNU’s collection on DataverseNO, and it is gratifying that the platform helps make research data at the university more open. Our team at the University Library works closely with NTNU’s research communities to find the best solutions for publishing various types of data.”

Guidance Through the Archiving Process

NTNU University Library supports researchers throughout the archiving process – from cleaning data and preparing README files to uploading and managing metadata.

The people behind the scene to keep DataverseNO running have done a great job in providing feedback and helpful instructions and recommendations throughout the data-uploading process. They are always friendly, professional, and quick in their responses, making the whole experience smooth and streamlined. Not only would I recommend DataverseNO to all my colleagues out of principle, but I would also recommend it based on the user experience. – Leon Li

Sahlström coordinates the curation work involving 10 library staff members: “We also offer digital courses for staff and students every semester and actively participate in the national DataverseNO collaboration to further develop the platform. We hope that more researchers at the university will discover the benefits of sharing research data via DataverseNO in the future,” he encourages.

Research group leader Hearst chooses DataverseNO over other services: “While there are ever increasing platforms for sharing data, having a local service with local support streamlines the process. I frequently recommend DataverseNO to NTNU colleagues.”

DataverseNO welcomes the University of South-Eastern Norway as a partner institution. With its own institutional collection (https://dataverse.no/dataverse/usn) in DataverseNO, USN can offer their researchers a certified and curated data repository where they can make their data openly available and thus make their research more visible, and promote competence on open research.

UiT The Arctic University of Norway is part of two project consortia that have just succeeded in the competition for funds for two EU projects. Both projects are led by CSC – IT Center for Science in Finland and are about further developing the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The project FIDELIS – A European Network of Trustworthy Digital Repositories aims to establish a European network of reliable repositories for research data and other digital research objects. The call for funding for this project originates from a working paper published by key players in 2022. The project is a collaboration between 24 institutions from across Europe.

The project EDEN – Enhancing Digital Preservation Strategies at European and National Level will develop and establish a framework to identify what data are candidates to long-term preservation based on use, benefit, and quality and a model for re-appraisal points along the data lifecycle and test usability after data archiving. The call for these funds is a follow-up to the recommendations from the EOSC Long-Term Data Preservation Task Force. A total of 16 institutions from several European countries will collaborate in this project.

Both projects will last for three years and are planned to start in January 2025. UiT is represented in the two projects through the teams working with DataverseNO and TROLLing at the University Library (UB).

DataverseNO is a national, generalist repository for research data, launched in 2017, and is today a collaboration between 16 partner institutions. From the very beginning, we have been committed to building and operating a reliable data repository for researchers from Norwegian research organizations regardless of domain and data type, and in line with international requirements and recommendations for good data management, such as the well-established FAIR principles. As one of the first national services in the world, DataverseNO was CoreTrustSeal certified as a Trusted Digital Repository in 2020, and we are now – somewhat delayed – in the process of renewing this certification.

TROLLing is a specialized repository for research data from linguistics and language studies. The repository was launched in 2014 and is through the national CLARINO node part of the European CLARIN infrastructure.

Both repositories are managed by UB in collaboration with the IT Department (ITA), and – in the case of TROLLing – the Department of Language and Culture (ISK) at the HSL Faculty at UiT. Endorsed by Eallju – Developing the High North: UiT’s strategy towards 2030, the two repositories are an important part of UiT’s strategic work to promote Open Science and develop the field in close cooperation with national and international partners.

Several people involved in the management of DataverseNO and TROLLing have been active in international communities and networks working with infrastructure and support services for research data management, e.g., CLARIN, the Global Dataverse Community Consortium (GDCC), and the Research Data Alliance (RDA).

The community around DataverseNO has also initiated a national curation network for FAIR research data, which will be an important platform to enable competency building and upskilling in the field of research data management across institutions and support services, and which will be an important component of a future EOSC competence centre and the future national EOSC node in Norway.

We hope that our experiences with the development and management of repository services and networks related to research data management will contribute positively to the two new EU projects. At the same time, we are convinced that our project participation will enhance our competency and skills at UiT and will benefit the further development of our two repository services. In particular, this applies to the further integration of our services with EOSC. Our overarching goal is always to offer good support services to our researchers and in this way contribute to research at the national and international forefront.

We are very pleased to be part of the two project consortia and look forward to inspiring and fruitful collaboration.

Contact person:
Philipp Conzett
Email: philipp.conzett@uit.no

DataverseNO welcomes OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University as a partner institution. With its own institutional collection in DataverseNO, OsloMet can now offer their researchers a certified and curated data repository where they can make their data openly available and thus make their research more visible, and promote competence on open research.

DataverseNO welcomes the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) as a partner institution. With its own institutional collection (https://dataverse.no/dataverse/nibio) in DataverseNO, NIBIO can now offer their researchers a certified and curated data repository where they can make their data openly available and thus make their research more visible, and promote competence on open research. For more information about the NIBIO-collection in DataverseNO, contact Hanne Tvete.

Due to a major service upgrade, DataverseNO will not be available for any action requiring login (deposit, curation, administration) from Friday March 24 after 16:00 CET until and including Tuesday March 28, 2023. In addition, on Monday March 27 and Tuesday March 28, DataverseNO may also be unavailable for discovery and download in shorter periods. We apologize for any inconvenience. For questions, please contact the DataverseNO Team at support@dataverse.no.

DataverseNO welcomes the University of Oslo (UiO) as a partner institution. With its own institutional collection (https://dataverse.no/dataverse/uio) in DataverseNO, UiO can now offer their researchers a certified and curated data repository where they can make their data openly available and thus make their research more visible, and promote competence on open research. For more information, see the UiO website: https://www.ub.uio.no/english/writing-publishing/data-archiving/dataverse-uio.html.

The working paper “Towards a European network of FAIR-enabling Trustworthy Digital Repositories (TDRs)”, which just has been published on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7034314). This paper is the initiative of a broad author team consisting of stakeholders from the European repository community. It details a vision of how the Network could be created and what next steps need to be taken to make this a reality. The paper was created in continuation of the workshop that was held in January 2022 (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5849658), in which a large part of the community indicated a desire for this Network.

The core of the paper describes the main functions the Network should have to address the main challenges in the community: Networking and knowledge exchange, stakeholder advocacy and engagement, and coordination and development. The functions and accompanying activities are described and depicted to show the potential of the Network. Next, the paper describes the steps that need to be taken to further detail and develop the Network, including membership, business model, and governance.

The paper was created with input from the European repository community, as a consultation questionnaire was extended to the community in June 2022. The published paper will serve as input for the EOSC Task Force on Long Term Digital Preservation (https://www.eosc.eu/advisory-groups/long-term-data-preservation). One of the core activities mentioned in the charter of this Task Force is to produce recommendations on the creation of such a network.

UiT and DataverseNO are happy to have contributed to this paper. Thank you to Ingrid Dillo, Maaike Verburg, and Vasso Kalaitzi from DANS (https://dans.knaw.nl/en/) for initiating and coordinating this work!

DataverseNO welcomes VID Specialized University as a partner institution. With its own institutional collection (https://dataverse.no/dataverse/vid) in DataverseNO, VID can now offer their researchers a certified and curated data repository where they can make their data openly available and thus make their research more visible, and promote competence on open research.