Swedish National Data Service (SND)

Sweden needs a well-functioning infrastructure that supports the sharing and reuse of research data. Policymakers and funders of research are beginning to require that research output they are funding is made public.

Advocates of open access to research data point to advantages in terms of research transparency, impact, and cumulative science. Other benefits include sustainability, efficient use of public funds, and more equitable access to high-quality data.

However, technical solutions, community practices, legal requirements, and ethical standards all pose challenges to researchers who try to share data in a way that makes them FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.The Swedish National Data Service (SND) supports and promotes efforts to make research data produced in Sweden open and FAIR.

SND is a knowledge hub for research data management at the centre of a system for knowledge exchange and dissemination.

SND initiates, creates, and participates in networks and collaborations with stakeholders from the national and international research data community.

Through SND, users gain access to technical tools and services that facilitate describing, sharing, and reusing FAIR data.

The goals that outline SND’s role in the Swedish research community are: to facilitate the sharing of research data; to provide data visibility and usage metrics; and to facilitate trustworthy data access.SND is a consortium of nine of Sweden’s largest research universities, with data management expertise distributed across all partners and with a main office at the administrating university.

The infrastructure’s closest partners are the data support functions at the thirty-five universities and research organisations that make up the SND Network.

Together, we will provide means for researchers and universities to achieve the Swedish objective of open access to research information by 2026.