IASSIST, International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology, is an international organisation working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences. Every year IASSIST and a member country arrange a conference for their global network, and last week it was announced that Gothenburg will host the 46th international IASSIST conference in 2020.
Earlier this winter SND, through senior advisor Iris Alfredsson, applied to arrange the 46th annual IASSIST conference. Together with Göteborg & Co SND wrote a very thorough application, and on the 22nd of January it was announced that the 2020 IASSIST conference will be arranged in Gothenburg with SND as host organisation.
IASSIST has more than 300 members across the globe, and their conferences tend to get many participants. Iris Alfredsson, who has visited the conference all of 14 times, is looking forward to hosting the conference:
–It’ll be nice to welcome old and new friends from all over the world to Gothenburg. I also believe that the conference will be interesting for everyone involved in establishing DAU units in the Swedish universities. This will be an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences with others who work with making research data accessible.
The conference theme has not yet been decided, but it will be worked out jointly by SND and the program committee for the 2020 conference. Previous themes have been “Embracing the 'Data Revolution': Opportunities and challenges for research” (2016), “Data in the Middle: The common language of research” (2017), and “Once Upon A Data Point: Sustaining Our Data Storytellers” (2018). The 2019 conference takes place in Sydney, Australia, under the heading "Data Down Under: Exploring 'Data Firsts'." When asked about a theme, Iris associates it to current issues for SND:
–A possible theme could be how to create networks on a local, national, and international level. This is a very important matter for SND, as we are currently working with developing a national research infrastructure.
The IASSIST conference will be held on May 27–29 at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in Gothenburg. In the days leading up to the conference (May 25–26) there will be several fringe workshops and meetings. We will have more information on our web site and on the IASSIST web site as we approach the conference date.