Open access to research data is a complex area that involves a large number of different actors, both nationally and internationally. The Swedish Research Council’s mandate is implemented in consultation with bodies such as the National Library of Sweden, the National Archives, the Agency for Digital Government, and higher education institutions.
In March 2022, we published a report on the mandate. The report includes a mapping, analysis and assessment of the national work on open access to research data, together with recommendations for how the work should be implemented in the future to drive the development towards open access to research data forwards.
In October 2021, we published an interim report on the mandate (in Swedish, summary in English) with a description of the initiatives taken to date. The report also includes an international outlook.
Read also our status report from 2020, where we report on the work on the mandate during the first three years: Status report – summary of the work during 2017–2019 and continued work (in Swedish, summary in English).
Background to the assignment
Since 2017, the Swedish Research Council has had the task of coordinating the national work of introducing open access to research data. The background to the mandate is, among other things, a Government mandate to draw up national guidelines for open access to scientific information, which the Swedish Research Council was given in 2013. This resulted in the report "Proposal for national guidelines for open access to scientific information".
The Government followed up the proposals in the report in its 2016 research policy bill (Govt. Bill 2016/17:50), which assigned specific national coordination responsibility for open access to data (to the Swedish Research Council) and for publications (to the National Library of Sweden). One of the goals of the Government bill is for the transition to open access to research results, including scientific publications, artistic works and research data, to be fully implemented within ten years – that is to say by 2026.
The European Commission recommends open access
The European Commission has issued a recommendation on open access to research data and preservation of scientific information. The Swedish Research Council has the role of National Point of Reference (NPR) on Scientific Information for Sweden. This means that we coordinate the measures stated in the recommendation nationally, and report on the work done in Sweden to the European Commission – and vice versa.
Read more about what it means to be an NPR on the EU Commission’s website
External link.
The Swedish Research Council’s reference group for open access to research data and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)
The work of the reference group includes
- contributing to a good overview of the landscape in terms of the work on open access to research data nationally and within the European Commission’s investments and initiatives, with particular focus on EOSC
- creating engagement with, wide acceptance of , and spreading knowledge about the Government’s mandate on open access to research data and the European collaboration on these issues
- facilitating the implementation of the FAIR principles to promote access to research data
- contributing to an overview of the development, how the practical work on open access to research data is done, and other relevant issues in the implementation of open access to research data of relevance to organisations.
In addition to the Swedish Research Council, the group includes representatives from the following organisations:
- Chalmers University of Technology
- University of Gothenburg, hosting the Swedish National Data Service (SND)
- Formas (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development)
- Forte (Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare)
- Karolinska Institutet
- National Library of Sweden
- Linköping University
- Linnaeus University
- Lund University
- Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- National Archives
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Stockholm University
- Young Academy of Sweden
- Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF)
- Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC)
- Umeå University
- Uppsala University
- Vinnova (Sweden’s Innovation Agency)
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