The international IASSIST 2020 conference should have been held in Gothenburg on 18–22 May this year, but just like so many other planned events, the COVID-19 outbreak got in the way. With the current situation in mind, the conference will now be pushed ahead to 2021 and divided into two parts: a global virtual program, and a smaller physical meeting in collaboration with the CESSDA research infrastructure.
IASSIST (International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology) works with data-related matters, especially in the social sciences. Every year, the organisation hosts a large conference with hundreds of participants from across the world. The IASSIST 2020 conference should have been held in Gothenburg and hosted by SND, but had to be cancelled at short notice due to the pandemic.
—We were disappointed to have to cancel. We had been looking forward to hosting the big IASSIST conference here in Gothenburg, but given the current circumstances, we think that we’ll be able to offer an interesting conference with a broad and varied program, says Iris Alfredsson, Senior Adviser in SND and chair of the local program committee.
Virtual conference and physical meeting in 2021
The new conference format means that the main conference will be virtual and scheduled for some time in May 2021, to allow for as many participants as possible. There will also be a physical meeting in Gothenburg from 30 June to 2 July. This meeting will be a collaboration between IASSIST and CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives).
—IASSIST and CESSDA are two important organisations in the international field of research data, and we’re very happy to welcome representatives from both of them to us in Gothenburg. I believe that this will be a good opportunity for our international visitors and national research data network to exchange know-how and experiences, says Iris Alfredsson.
A good share of the planned program for 2020 will be re-used for the 2021 conference. Those who have already been accepted for presentations will be able to choose whether they would like to participate in the virtual event or on location in Gothenburg. Depending on the distribution of presentations in the programs, there may be an additional call for presentations.
Additional information about programs, registration, and other practical arrangements will be published on www.iassistdata.org and on the official IASSIST 2021 website shortly.