[Johanna Kaunisvaara]

Concepts such as Open Science, Re-use of (Research) Data as well as MyData and Big Data have woken a steady interest among the research community, public administration and industry in Finland. Research Data Alliance (RDA) is one way to promote and support the innovation in these topics and put them into action e.g. by adopting RDA outputs and recommendations.

In 2014, the Ministry of Education and Culture released The Open Science and Research Roadmap 2014–2017, based on the work of the Open Science and Research Initiative (ATT), a cross-administrative initiative whose goal is to promote open science and the availability of information. A year before that, Finnish Open Data Programme for 2013-2015, led by the Ministry of Finance, aimed at opening up of access to public sector information. As a follow-up, the Open Data Policy in the Finnish Government for 2015-2020 was published, covering the proposals of the previous programme.

From the research funding perspective, the importance of open research data, with the emphasis on re-use, has been widely recognized as well. One of the Academy of Finland’s science policy objectives is to promote open science, and they require that Academy-funded projects commit to open access publishing. Additionally, The Academy of Finland requires that applications to be submitted to the Academy include a data management plan for the research project or research infrastructure concerned.

Also international aspects are taken into consideration. Finnish Committee for Research Data (FCRD) brings together Finnish professionals and organisations from the field of research data management. FCRD represents Finland in the International Council for Science (ICSU) Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) and follows closely the activities of RDA and World Data Systems (WDS). Open Knowledge Finland (OKFFI), a registered not-for-profit association and part of the wider international Open Knowledge -network, promotes opening and usage of open knowledge and advances the development of open society in Finland.

On the more commercial side, the DATAJalostamo and Data Refining Society, bridge between the re-use of raw data and the services to improve and develop the common practices to accelerate the development of useful digital information platforms for the benefit of the service operation and development companies.

 

Discussion