Publicly funded research data should be made widely accessible

19.03.2010

Enhancing the accessibility and availability of research data is an important national objective which requires tangible technical, cultural, attitudinal and structural changes. Current challenges are related to scattered data storage and organization, legislation, practices, terms of data use, payments and services that support the use of the data. These are the conclusions of the Research Data project group which delivered its intermediate report to Minister of Education and Science Henna Virkkunen on 19 March 2010. The report was drafted by CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd and the group of experts invited by CSC which was chaired by Director Pirjo-Leena Forsström from CSC.

Publicly produced and financed research data is an important national resource, which is currently only partly accessible. According to the report, making research data and the e-services that leverage such data easily and widely accessible would increase the effectiveness of research and innovation, make new findings possible and enable the use of data in unforeseen ways and in new contexts.

The report makes clear suggestions on required actions. The data policy governing research data needs to be clear and requires implementation at the ministry level and right down to unit level. The roles of different actors must be defined keeping the big picture in mind. Immediate action should be taken to draw up the national data infrastructure and build it to provide modular e-services. The report also suggests amending current legislation to better support the role of research and innovation in the information society and ensure that data is available legally.
The writers of the report would also do away with the clear imbalance between project-financed data production and long-term use of such data. Significant amounts money are used on creating data, but the produced data contents are not described in enough detail and their re-use is not supported. Practices and working culture can be guided towards the right direction through recommendations and encouragement.

The steering group of the Research Data project will operate until the end of 2010. It will propose more detailed actions based on the recommendations included in the report. Some of the recommendations in the report are of such an urgent nature that their implementation could be started immediately.

The Finnish report “Tutkimuksen tietoaineistot – Olennaisen käsikirja päättäjille” (Research Data – Essentials for Decision Makers) can be downloaded in PDF format here:

http://www.csc.fi/csc/julkaisut/oppaat/2010/tutkimuksen-tietoaineistot

Please click here to download a summary of the report (In Finnish only).

More information is available here: http://www.csc.fi/sivut/e-infra/tietoaineistot

For more information, please contact:
Director Pirjo-Leena Forsström
CSC – IT Center for Science
Chair of the expert group of the Research Data project
Tel. 358 9 457 2273

Development Coordinator Satu Tissari
CSC – IT Center for Science
Secretary of the Research Data project
Tel. + 358 9 457 2039

CSC

CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd. is a non-profit limited company administered by the Ministry of Education. Having core competences in modeling, computing and information services, CSC provides versatile IT services, support and resources for academia, research institutes, and companies. The Funet communication links provide research workers with Finland's widest selection of scientific software and databases and Finland's most powerful supercomputers.