What began in 1981 with two data enthusiasts sharing a small office at the University of Gothenburg has grown into a national research data infrastructure supporting a majority of Sweden’s higher education institutions. One of those two pioneers was Iris Alfredsson. Now, after 44 years of building and developing SND, she has entered retirement.
It’s no easy task to summarize the impact Iris Alfredsson has had on the long-term efforts to document and share research data. Tirelessly, she has contributed to development work both nationally and internationally, generously sharing her expertise and enthusiasm – whether the topic has been metadata standards, certification, or strategic planning for the future. How highly Iris is regarded by colleagues in Sweden and around the world became especially clear during her retirement celebration. Many people wanted to send their best wishes and express their appreciation for the collaboration over the years – particularly the team at FSD (the Finnish Social Science Data Archive), who paid tribute with a video recorded in a sauna, featuring rewritten lyrics to KAJ’s popular Eurovision hit “Bara bada bastu”. The video had everyone laughing and nodding in recognition when it was shown during the festivities.
“I will truly miss all the lovely colleagues and those great conversations about what’s going on. It will be a big change having so much time without work. I won’t be sitting on a park bench, but maybe I’ll finally get around to learning Italian. I’ve tried so many times, but it’s never really taken off,” says Iris.
Time to document SND’s history
Hopefully, there will also be time to document the history of SND, in collaboration with Birger Jerlehag – also retired, and one of the early staff members at SSD (Swedish Social Science Data Service), SND’s predecessor. Both Iris and Birger have kept a wealth of material from the 1980s onwards, so there is a rich source of documentation to draw from.
How did Iris end up being one of the early contributors to the work of making research data available for reuse?
“Well, it actually happened by chance. Lennart Brantgärde and I worked together in the late 1970s in the Kommundemokratiprojektet (the Local Democracy Project), a research collaboration between the universities in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Lund, and Umeå. The Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg was approached by the Humanistisk-samhällsvetenskapliga forskningsrådet (Humanities and Social Sciences Research Council) with a proposal to establish a data archive for the social sciences. Political scientists had already been archiving research data on a trial basis since 1977. Lennart became the director and asked if I was interested too. I thought, ‘Sure, I’ll give it a try,’ and so we launched SSD in February 1981,” Iris recounts.
The work began by mapping existing data
In the early days, much of SSD’s work focused on identifying what social science data actually existed – both nationally and internationally. In spring 1981, an inventory was carried out to map machine-readable data held by Swedish social science researchers and research projects. The outcome was a catalogue of around 200 studies, published as Svenska Databaser I (Swedish Databases I).
By the start of its second year, SSD had gained enough experience to begin distributing research data from sister archives around the world. Through its membership in CESSDA, IFDO, and ICPSR, SSD could provide researchers and students in Sweden with access to a wide range of datasets.
“At first, we didn’t have any Swedish data to distribute, but in time we documented, among other things, the series Swedish Election Studies, which are still some of SND’s most requested datasets today. A key to our success was that there were researchers who were exceptionally generous in sharing data with others,” says Iris.
International collaboration was essential
Iris continually highlights the crucial role international collaboration played in building up the operations of SSD, and later SND. This included everything from using specially developed documentation systems from ICPSR in the USA to gaining valuable experience through CESSDA.
“In the beginning, it was mostly the directors of the CESSDA archives who met. But from 1987 onwards, annual meetings began that also included those of us ‘on the floor’, so to speak. Since then, the joint efforts have grown, with a wide range of activities and projects,” she says.
A great deal has changed over the more than 40 years that Iris has worked to ensure that research data are well-documented and available for reuse. When asked to highlight particularly significant moments in her career, she mentions three – each linked to the turn of the millennium: the 1990s, “the tough years,” and “the wild years.”
“Looking back now, you can see just how revolutionary and important the Internet was when it broke through in the 1990s. Just things like e-mail contact, the ability to quickly and easily showcase our collections, and the fact that we no longer had to rely on printed catalogues published every three years. We also encouraged each other within CESSDA to publish a shared catalogue. It only took about a month to complete – eight archives or so exchanged data descriptions digitally using six fields, including title, author, and a short abstract. But at that point, it still wasn’t possible to request data online,” Iris recalls.
The CD saved us during “the tough years”
During the first 15 years, there was plenty of funding for SSD. But from the mid-1990s into the early 2000s, things became more difficult – what Iris refers to as “the tough years.” It was increasingly hard to secure project funding. The Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Gothenburg began to shrink, competition for research grants intensified, and researchers not employed at the University felt that they could not deposit data with SSD.
“It really came down to the wire – we were close to having to shut down completely. The then-dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lennart Weibull, worked extremely hard to review our funding situation. We had to take on every kind of documentation assignment just to keep going. You could honestly say that the CD saved us. It was so convenient to have everything – both data and documentation – on the same disc,” says Iris.
In the early 2000s, a report was published by Professor of Sociology Stefan Svallfors, highlighting the importance of a social science data archive. However, not much changed for a few years – except that SSD held firm. In 2004, Lennart Brantgärde retired, and what Iris jokingly refers to as “the wild years” began.
A time of change during “the wild years”
“After Lennart retired, I became acting director, and I thought it was time for a fresh start. I was supposed to hold the post for nine months, but it turned into four years. You could say it was a bit of a wild time… We jumped at several new opportunities, including ELSST and DDI, and we began developing SIMS – our own documentation system, which became the precursor to DORIS. CESSDA also had a major project preparing for its ERIC status. The Swedish Research Council prioritized our membership and saw it as important. We wanted to be where things were happening, to be visible and show our commitment – because if you’re not seen, you risk being forgotten,” says Iris.
In 2006, the Swedish Research Council announced a call for proposals to broaden the mission of making research data accessible. Data management for three subject areas – social sciences, humanities, and epidemiology – was to be coordinated. Five universities applied, and Gothenburg and Stockholm advanced to the hearing stage. In autumn 2007, a decision was made, and the current SND was launched. Since then, the organization has grown, now with a national mandate that spans all research fields and a network of 37 Swedish higher education institutions and research organizations.
A privilege to be part of the journey
Throughout all the uncertainties and changes, Iris has remained dedicated to the work.
“Even though there have been challenging times, it’s been fantastic to track the developments and to be part of them. Looking ahead, it’s both exciting and essential that we establish training programmes for our professional roles and that we continue working actively at the international level with our competence centres, such as through Skills4EOSC. It also means that our professional expertise is acknowledged – the tremendous amount of work being done in our field is starting to gain recognition and visibility.”
Does Iris have any regrets or second thoughts, looking back over the years?
“I’m sure there are things I could regret… I’ll have to get back to you on that after Birger and I have gone through the full history of SND,” she says with a laugh.
A bit more about Iris Alfredsson
- Age: 70.
- Family: Two sons, their partners, five grandchildren, and two cats.
- Degree: Bachelor of Social Science.
- Roles at SND: Deputy Director (2008–2015), Senior Adviser (2015–2025).
- Lives in: Hisingen, Gothenburg; originally from Svanskog, Värmland.
- Interests: Travelling, reading, spending time with family.
- Fun fact about Iris:
Loves soccer; her favourite team is Fiorentina.