DANS has a solid foundation as a national institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and enjoys a strong position in national and international networks. DANS’ role as a centre of expertise is becoming increasingly prominent in this regard. In a federated landscape of data professionals and data services, we contribute significantly to the further professionalisation of the data landscape by sharing domain-specific expertise, our extensive experience with international interoperability, and by providing repository services.<\/p>\n
Ambitions<\/h2>\n
As a centre of expertise, DANS will accelerate the professionalisation of data management in the Netherlands so that the reuse of existing data and reusable data will be standard practice in the planning phase of research by 2028. DANS is leading the development of a national training and community platform that provides all data professionals access to up-to-date knowledge. We reinforce the interaction between national and international developments.<\/p>\n
DANS’ trustworthy and innovative services will be part of a national open science infrastructure by 2028. We will support a growing number of organisations in setting up and maintaining an institutional data repository and offer individual researchers the opportunity to share their data securely with DANS in the long term and in a suitable thematic repository. By 2028, DANS data will be easily accessible to everyone through a network of trustworthy repositories and through links to diverse types of research output.<\/p>\n
DANS will participate in steering the development of a nationally coordinated policy that will facilitate and encourage the reuse of research data by 2028. To this end, we will translate the open science principle of \u2018as open as possible and as closed as necessary\u2019 into concrete guidelines and services for the secure sharing of diverse types of data within the framework of legislation and regulations. By 2028, the DANS data services will serve as the national testing ground for the implementation of new policies and the development of best practices.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em>To realise our strategy, DANS needs to ensure its continuous development as a learning and professional organisation that knows how to utilise the potential of our knowledge workers and which can safeguard a diverse and inclusive working environment. By 2028, DANS’ services will be supported by a strong organisation and robust financial business cases. This will then have consolidated DANS’s unique contribution to, primarily, the national data landscape and also to the international, particularly European, data landscape.<\/p>\n In the coming years, DANS will play a stimulating and connecting role within the national and international data landscape to increase the actual reuse of research data.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/dans.knaw.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DANS-Strategy-2026-2028.pdf” button_text=”Read the whole strategy document” _builder_version=”4.10.7″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” url_new_window=”on” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From data to knowledge | strategy 2026 – 2028 Moving forward from the 2021\u20132025 policy period and the SEP evaluation in 2024, DANS presents a new strategy for the period 2026\u20132028. In recent years, DANS has reinforced its position as a centre of expertise in the national and international data landscape by taking full advantage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":287,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" In 2020, DANS celebrated its 15th anniversary. We are proud of our achievements. In 2020, with more than 150,000 datasets, DANS is in the top five of similar repositories in the world. We helped shape a European data infrastructure and developed an internationally recognised quality seal for repositories. In the process, DANS blossomed into a worldwide centre of expertise on FAIR data. We became good at executing and managing European projects. That is one of reasons why we have grown. In 2005, we started out as a team of 15; now there are 60 of us.<\/p>\r\n It is our mission to enhance the reusability of research data and thus the quality of scientific research. The use of FAIR data improves the verifiability and reproducibility of research. It also enhances efficiency because building datasets is expensive. What is more, linking data can lead to new discoveries and insights. Reusing and connecting data accelerates knowledge circulation and increases our ability to solve complex issues. In short, making better use of data leads to better science, which matters to society.<\/p>\r\nIn other words, the work of DANS is socially relevant. And there is still a lot to do. Most datasets of published research in the Netherlands still reside on local servers or disks, have a limited shelf life and are inaccessible to the outside world. FAIRness of research data is in need a solid boost, both financially and in terms of collaboration and coordination. To this end, the National Plan for Open Science has been set up. Being one of the major players in the Dutch data landscape, DANS can make a powerful contribution to this initiative. Drawing up our fourth 5-year programme we have not allowed ourselves to be guided by the question of how DANS alone can continue its success. Instead, we started from the question of what the Dutch data landscape needs to be successful and how DANS can make its most effective contribution. Our answer is that we can do so in three ways: as a versatile data repository, as a centre of expertise for FAIR data, and as a partner. This has resulted in an innovative programme that we will briefly explain below. The keepers of DANS, i.e. KNAW and NWO, have expressed their support.\r\n DANS will expand and renew its range of expert services. There clearly is a growing need for FAIR data expertise to which DANS can make a substantial contribution.<\/p>\r\n DANS has participated in dozens of international projects to develop standards, techniques, methods and practices for improved sharing, reuse and archiving of research data. In the meantime, as a data repository, we have learned from the complicated issues we have been confronted with in practice. It is no false claim if we state that DANS has grown into a straightforward centre of expertise through this combination of theory and practice. In the coming period we are going to make this function explicit. In this way, the demand for expertise on FAIR data and Research Data Management will be given a clear focus. A team of approximately 20 Research Data Management Consultants and R&D engineers will be engaged in the following activities.<\/p>\r\n\r\n DANS is going to radically overhaul its data services offering. Starting point of this change is that requirements among the scientific disciplines vary considerably. The nature and dimensions of the datasets are also greatly different. These differences are reflected in the diversity of the national landscape. There are excellent data services that are close to the research, but they do not cover everything. That is the task of more generic repositories such as DANS.<\/p>\r\n The downside to generic catch-all repositories is their one-solution-fits-all approach. Indeed, researchers can do little more than deposit or download datasets. There is a need for data services that seamlessly integrate with virtual research environments (VREs) and provide editing, version management and analysis capabilities using external tools. Obviously, long-term preservation of the dataset and its usability must also be possible. However, as VREs and research practices in various disciplines vary widely, different solutions will have to be found for different research disciplines.<\/p>\r\nNo generic repository has yet been successful in this respect, but DANS is taking up the challenge. Applying a new, modular services structure, we will provide tailor-made services to various user groups, while at the same time our infrastructure will grow with these new developments and continue to offer stability and reliability. DANS will offer a combination of \u2018reuse\u2019 and \u2018long-term preservation\u2019 services. The technological foundation of the DANS infrastructure will be the Dataverse platform, developed by an international community led by Harvard University. Multiple instances of Dataverse - referred to as Data Stations - will be customised to the needs of various disciplines and research communities. The Data Stations are intended to be used with datasets that are still being worked with and added to. Researchers can bring their data\u00a0Researchers can bring their data to one of the DANS Data Stations:\u00a0Archaeology<\/em>,\u00a0Social Sciences and Humanities<\/em>,\u00a0Life Sciences<\/i>, and Physical and Technical Sciences<\/i>.\u00a0Each station is assigned a Data Station Manager, who will establish and maintain contacts with the relevant research community. In addition to the Data Stations, DANS will continue to offer DataverseNL, the platform service which allows universities, universities of applied sciences, and research institutions to establish their own repositories. Data contained in Data Stations and DataverseNL will automatically finds its way to the DANS Data Vault, a secure, reliable, and certified long-term preservation repository. The Vault also contains all datasets that have previously been entrusted to DANS. In addition, the Vault is a service provided to institutions and companies looking for long-term reliable storage of their data archives. DANS performs this service in a uniform manner based on international standards and best practices. DANS is going to invest more in collaboration and coordination. The task of raising the share of FAIR research data in the Netherlands to an acceptable level and facilitating its analysis requires a joint approach. Enabling awareness campaigns, coherent training programmes, the connection of datasets from various research disciplines: no organisation in the Dutch data landscape can achieve these goals on its own.<\/p>\r\n DANS wants its services to be complementary - and if possible connected - to the services of other providers. In the coming period DANS will work to promote collaboration and coordination, partly in the context of the National Plan for Open Science (NPOS). We advocate a pragmatic approach in which existing organisations take their responsibility in consultation with the NPOS board. At first, this should involve the larger discipline-generic organisations with sufficient resources and strength. DANS is such an organisation, as are the eScience Center and SURF. The main focus areas of these three organisations are more or less complementary: data, software, infrastructure. Connections between these domains are, however, also needed. If the three national organisations succeed in coordinating their activities and then start to facilitate coordination within the landscape, much will have been achieved.<\/p>\r\nAt the same time, DANS is convinced that concrete bottom-up initiatives on a smaller scale can also be effective. We will be happy to collaborate in projects that lead to improvement of services and better coordination. We will initiate such projects ourselves. We intend to continue the Research Data Netherlands (RDNL) partnership with 4TU.ResearchData and SURF. Watch the video where Henk Wals, director DANS, explains the programme (English subtitles available):\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m5Bm5I0iyRw[\/embed]\r\n Please find this document as\u00a0.pdf<\/a>. This\u00a0interview<\/a> explains the document in more detail.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13904","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFocus on FAIR: DANS 2021-2025<\/h3>\r\n
Three programme pillars<\/h3>\r\n
Centre of expertise for FAIR research data<\/h3>\r\n
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Versatile data repository<\/h3>\r\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dans.knaw.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Data-Stations.png\")
In order to realise the new set-up, DANS is making drastic changes to its organisation. A team of Data Station Managers and an R&D team will be established. All technological units at DANS are going to be managed by a Chief Technology Officer, who will drive constant innovation from the board of directors.\r\nActive collaborator<\/h3>\r\n
More information<\/h3>\r\n