Welcome to Gothenburg for the SND Network’s spring meeting! 

This year’s first in-person SND Network meeting will be hosted at the University of Gothenburg and has two main themes: The future of the SND Network and (open) access to geodata.

Day 1: The future of the SND Network 

Last year, a proposal was presented suggesting that the Swedish Research Council be given national responsibility for coordinating Swedish research e-infrastructure. One part of the proposal is that SND’s activities would be incorporated into the Swedish Research Council. The proposal emphasises the value of the SND Network as an important national knowledge hub in research data management and access to research data, and stresses that the network should remain in place. A clarifying government mandate is expected in spring 2026.  

The first day of the meeting will focus on the future and on what this proposal could mean in practice. What might the SND Network look like if SND becomes part of the Swedish Research Council, and how could the network operate in that new context?  

For further reading, here is a link to the proposal, in Swedish: Ökad-samordning-och-organisatorisk-förändring-av-e-infrastruktur-för-forskning 2025 (PDF).

The day will conclude with a reception at SND followed by a joint dinner at Restaurant Norden, Conference Centre Wallenberg.

Day 2: (Open) access to geodata

With 2026 under way, the time has come to make research data accessible as openly as possible. At the same time, we know that some types of data may require extensive restrictions, and this applies not only to personal data. Geographic data have their own challenges when it comes to access. Some datasets can be made available with restricted access, while others may not be possible to make accessible at all. 

The second day of the meeting will look at different perspectives on making geographic research data accessible. This may involve, for example, protecting endangered species and strategic infrastructure, or withholding information about land and water resources for security reasons. What considerations should we make in regard to various types of research data, and who ultimately decides whether a dataset can, should, or may be made accessible? 

As usual, we offer a number of workshops before and after the network meeting.

Time: 21 April at 13:00–22 April at 12:00.

Place: Conference Centre Wallenberg

Registration: Register for the meeting through this link. Last day to register for in-person attendance is 7 April.

Virtual attendance: Virtual attendance in the main meeting will be possible; see each workshop for details about in person or hybrid attendance.

Contact: Contact Elisabeth Strandhagen at elisabeth.strandhagen@snd.se.

Programme

Workshops

Day 1, 21 April

10:00–12:00: SND for beginners 

An introduction to SND and the work with open access to research data. 

Contact: Sara Svensson, SND.

This workshop is offered in person only.
 

Day 2, 22 April

13:00–16:00:  Moving forward together – towards a common guide to archiving for researchers

This workshop builds on the workshop “How can the archive help researchers do the right thing in archiving matters?”, held during the network meeting in October 2025.  

Research projects and researchers often operate across organizations and share knowledge regardless of where they are employed, while university archive services and information management policies are generally exclusive to each institution and their staff. Can we bridge this gap to create more favourable conditions for jointly developing guidelines and recommendations on archiving for researchers? If so, what should such guidance look like? 

The workshop will take the various higher education institutions’ information management plans/document management plans (not to confuse with DMPs) as its starting point and explore what they have in common and where they differ. Based on this, can we formulate guidance for researchers on document and data management during ongoing research projects?  
Contributors: Hanna Höie (MAU), Margareta Åkesson (HV), Sofia Särdquist (RA), and Elisabeth Strandhagen (SND).  

Contact: Elisabeth Strandhagen, SND. 

Note: This workshop is open to hybrid attendance. 

13:00-16:00: Connecting research data – geographic metadata, identifiers, and links 

In this workshop, we will focus on methods for improving the discoverability, interpretability, and interoperability of dataset descriptions. We will explore ways of creating links to relevant elements in the research process, such as different identifiers and geographic metadata. These methods may be useful in manual data curation in, for example, DORIS, but also for anyone who wants to build reusable workflows to support research activities. 

We will look at how to create, maintain, and use persistent identifiers (PID) across different systems to identify everything from organizations to software. We will also explore how AI tools can help you create different kinds of geographic summaries for use in data descriptions. 

We will be working on enriching metadata from real datasets in DORIS, so please bring a laptop. 

Contacts: David Rayner and André Jernung, SND 

This workshop is offered in person only.

13:00–16:00: The future of SND – key experiences and opportunities ahead of organizational transition 

It has been proposed that SND should be integrated into the Swedish Research Council. The proposal highlights the SND Network as an important national knowledge hub for managing and making research data accessible. But how can we preserve the values that the SND Network represents today?  

The aim of this workshop is to identify the strengths of SND and the SND Network, as well as the parts of the organization that have been most important for the HEIs’ work with research data, and which are particularly important to safeguard and develop in the future. Drawing on the discussions from the first day of the network meeting, we would like to gather concrete examples from across the SND Network of working methods, structures, and values that should be retained and further developed in a new organization.  

Workshop participants will also discuss new opportunities and challenges that may arise when SND becomes part of the Swedish Research Council. This may include, for example, coordination and support for HEIs in matters relating to research data. Our objective is to gather input from the SND Network that can contribute to the ongoing work of shaping the future of SND in a new organizational environment. 

Contacts: Eva Stensköld och Johan Fihn Marberg

This workshop is offered in person only.