About our work on open access to research data

The Swedish Research Council coordinates and promotes Sweden’s work on introducing open access to research data. The goal is to complete the transition no later than 2026. On this page, you will be able to follow our work with the coordination assignment.

Statusrapport – summering av arbetet 2017–2019 och fortsatt arbete

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.

Report: The Swedish Research Council’s coordination mandate on open access to research data 2022 (in Swedish, summary in English).

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.

EU Commission’s recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information (2018/790) External link.

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.

PublISHED ON

UpDATED ON

MORE WITHIN THE SAME SUBJECT AREA

  1. Open science – from policy to practice

    Wecome to the conference "Open science – from policy to practice". Join policy makers, researchers, practitioners and stakeholders from across Europe to exchange knowledge, share best practices and to discuss how Open Science can contribute to streng...

  2. The potential of research data – how research infrastructures provide new opportunities and benefits for society

    This is a high-level meeting during the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Discussions during the conference will focus on the possibility of using open research data to solve social challenges, and what role research infrastruc...

  3. Guide to the template for data management plans

    This is a guide and supplement to the data managemant plan template developed by the Swedish Research Council and the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions, SUHF. The purpose of the guide is to facilitate the understanding of what t...