In November, a CESSDA Widening workshop was held in Skopje, North Macedonia. SND was present as the Swedish CESSDA representative, but also as a mentor for North Macedonia, one of the most recent countries to become a member of CESSDA.

Aimed at CESSDA’s partner countries

CESSDA has some 20 established members and several partner countries. The partner countries have data archives that are in a start-up phase or groups who are interested in starting a data archive. The widening activities are aimed at those countries.

—What the working group did last year was, for example, to collect the resources you might need if you want to start a data archive. We also made an overview of the current state of affairs in these countries, and arranged two major meetings. This year, the working group has created a helpdesk where partners can ask questions, and initiated a mentorship programme, says Iris Alfredsson, Senior Advisor at SND and a member of the CESSDA Widening working group. (...)

The Mentorship Programme supports new data archives

In order to help new and aspiring members, the CESSDA Widening working group has started a mentorship programme. Partner organisations can apply to the programme for advice, and will then be assigned a mentor from a more experienced data archive. SND mentors North Macedonia and Italy, which means that they provide advice and support in all types of questions that can arise during the establishment of a data archive.

—It can concern everything from small to big questions. In the contacts with Italy, we have mainly dealt with the workflow and have, for example, commented on their data management handbook. With North Macedonia we have discussed various types of agreements and what competencies are needed in different areas of knowledge. Questions that have arisen for both archives are how to work in order to build networks and gain national coverage. Every time they run into a challenge, have questions or wonder about something, they can get in touch with us, says Iris Alfredsson. (...)

Read the full article on the SND website.

Find out more about CESSDA Widening Workshops.