National COVID-19 portal an important resource for data sharing
A Swedish COVID-19 data portal has now been in operation for a year and forms part of a European network aimed at promoting data sharing and access to data-related resources. The data portal has contributed to increased support for a large number of research projects and publications.
The corona pandemic has given rise to a global healthcare crisis that has demanded the rapid development of both new drug therapies and vaccines. The open sharing of research data and code to accelerate COVID-19-related research has increased the possibilities to reuse research data. The focus on promoting collaboration has also proved important in promoting research and development during the year.
The Swedish COVID-19 data portal was the first national portal launched as part of a European data-sharing platform initiated by the European Commission. The portal includes information, guidelines, tools, and services that researchers can use to share their data. So far it has had more than 20,000 users, supported a large number of research projects, and collected information and data from over 1,300 COVID-19-related research publications.
The data portal has been developed and operated by SciLifeLab Data Centre and affiliates on behalf of the Swedish Research Council. SciLifeLab is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet (KI), KTH, Stockholm University and Uppsala University.