A Swedish Network for Research Data Management

The Swedish National Data Service (SND) is a national infrastructure facilitating access to research data. SND supports accessibility, preservation, and re-use of data and related material. Research data from any subject area can be described in and published via the SND research data catalogue. This repository is CoreTrustSeal-certified, and published datasets are provided with DOI persistent identifier.

The SND network:

•SND is run by a consortium of nine universities, of which the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is one. (   )

•The SND Network consists of 34 universities and governmental authorities, including the consortium members. (   )

•The network’s purpose is to support Swedish researchers in making their data available and FAIR.

•All members of the network have agreed to establish a local support function for researchers, a so-called Data Access Unit.

The consortium universities contribute expert knowledge to SND in the form of domain specialists. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) provides expertise in climate and environmental data. 

The domain specialists

•act as a bridge between SND and researchers.

•advice on domain specific matters such as standard vocabularies and metadata standards.

•are involved in information and education initiatives.

•monitor the research data development in their domain.

•participate in national and international collaborations.

•work towards an increased understanding, use, and publication of open research data.

DCU - The Data Curation Unit at SLU

• DCU is a support organization for researchers and environmental analysts at SLU regarding research data management.
• DCU acts as the SLU Data Access Unit for SND.
• The unit assists in the publication and archiving of research data, mainly through education and support.
• DCU combines several areas of competence found at SLU: competence and expertise in matters regarding both library and archive as well as climate and environmental data.

What does DCU do for researchers?

•Assists in the preparation of data management plans.

•Provides support in questions related to data archiving and long-term preservation.

•Advices on how to document and prepare data for publication.

•Suggests repositories suitable for data publication.

•Informs and advices on approaches towards Open and FAIR data.

•Curates submitted data and metadata with regard to FAIRness.