Finland becomes member of CESSDA ERIC

The General Assembly of CESSDA ERIC has approved Finland’s membership application. With the approval of the application, FSD was officially designated as the Finnish service provider for CESSDA ERIC.

CESSDA operated as a network of European data service providers and evolved into a legal entity before becoming a European Research Infrastructure Consortium last June. In practice, however, data archives across Europe have functioned like an ERIC for quite a long time. FSD has been an active member of CESSDA for several years.

"I’m very pleased that Finland is once again an official member of CESSDA and that FSD remains a member of the family of European data archives. I was certain that the General Assembly would approve the membership application because FSD personnel have important roles in so many CESSDA projects," says Helena Laaksonen, the director of FSD.

The Finnish academic community has had the chance to enjoy the benefits and support provided by the network of European data archives for a while now. For example, the cooperation of data archives has enabled FSD to help Finnish researchers find data available in other European countries.

"The benefits of CESSDA membership will become more tangible once the integrated services for researchers are launched. These services are made possible by years of work in harmonisation and standardisation," Helena Laaksonen says.

New states have joined CESSDA after it was awarded the ERIC status, and CESSDA aims to cover all of the European Research Area and beyond. The operations of CESSDA are based on the decentralised services provided by national service providers. CESSDA is funded by ministries responsible for research in its member states.

CESSDA became a European Research Infrastructure Consortium in June 2017.
Photo: CESSDA ERIC, Eivind Senneset