NEWS
SciLifeLab and the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, VR) are coordinating a new research data portal, in order to facilitate data sharing and access for researchers working on research regarding Covid-19.
The portal, named Covid-10 Data Portal Sweden, is tightly linked with the European Covid-19 Data portal. The European level effort to accelerate research on the virus is supported by the European Commission.
The purpose of both portals is to provide researchers with the best possible conditions to quickly develop knowledge and measures to counteract the virus.
- The development of the corona pandemic shows with utter clarity the importance of open and transparent research. By sharing data with researchers across the world, we are increasing the pace of research, enabling studies with greater scope, and making it possible for anyone to partake of the research that is being conducted, to scrutinize methods and try to reproduce results, says Johan Rung, head of SciLifeLab’s Data Centre, when interviewed for the press release about the launch of the national portal (see links below).
Researchers within Life Sciences who have questions on how best to manage and share data are welcome to contact the SciLifeLab for counseling, either through their Data Centre or via the bioinformatics platform, National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden (NBIS). Umeå researchers also have access to the SND Domain Specialists.
- It is well advised to deposit raw data from research within Life Sciences with the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI). They have archives specific to data type and are an International center for Life Science Data. To do this is a way to ensure that the raw data is accessible in an International archive and visible for researchers across the world. We at SciLifeLab are strongly connected to EBI, for example via the Covid-19 portal, and are happy to help, Rung remarks.
- It is an excellent option to use a DOI from EBI when registering metadata about research data in the SND catalogue, notes Thomas Kieselbach, the university research data management coordinator.
The Covid Data Portals can be found in the library list of databases, as well as accessed through the links below.
