Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)

Abstract

The DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services) platform is the national centre of expertise and repository for research data. It includes data stations for various disciplines such as Social Sciences & Humanities, Archaeology, Life, Health & Medical Sciences, and Physical and Technical Sciences. These data stations allow researchers to store, share, and publish their data online, ensuring long-term preservation and accessibility. With features such as persistent identifiers, metadata standards, data curation, and integration with international initiatives like EOSC, it provides a robust infrastructure for FAIR data management.

Researchers can deposit their data in the platform’s repositories, making it publicly accessible or allowing it to be shared with specific stakeholders.

The platform supports various types of data, including datasets, publications, and associated research files. It assigns Persistent Identifiers (DOIs) to datasets and research objects, ensuring they are easily discoverable and permanently linked to their source, enabling citation and proper attribution. It emphasizes the use of metadata standards to ensure that the data is properly described and can be easily understood and reused by others. Researchers are guided in adding descriptive metadata to their datasets to improve searchability. It provides access control to datasets, allowing researchers to set access permissions according to the sensitivity of the data, such as allowing open access, restricted access, or embargoed data. It supports interoperability with international research infrastructures, allowing seamless integration with other data repositories and systems, such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Overview

Country	Netherlands
Start date	2005
Annual Budget	n/a
Responsible organisation(s)	Academic cooperation
Target group(s)	Researchers, academic institutions, and the broader scientific community
Policy instrument type	digital infrastructure designed to guide the collection, sharing, and utilization of environmental research data.

Background

The DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services) and DANS platform was created in the Netherlands in 2005 as part of a collaboration between the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) to provide a national service for archiving and sharing research data. In the period 2009-2012, the platform evolved with expanded functionality to support various types of research data, offering more robust services for archiving and sharing datasets across different disciplines. Since around 2017, the platform was modernized with improved support for the FAIR principles, including integration of metadata standards, persistent identifiers (PIDs), and better interoperability with international repositories. It has been growing its alignment with international open science initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). DANS is one of the leading repositories in Europe, providing a secure and reliable platform for long-term data preservation. It uses Harvard University’s open-source Dataverse technology to ensure interoperability and integration with other research infrastructure

Objective(s)

To support researchers in making their data available for reuse, thereby enhancing the verifiability, reproducibility, and impact of research.

To foster transparency and collaboration in research by making data openly available while ensuring that it adheres to the principles of open access.

To ensure the long-term preservation of digital research data in secure, standardized formats so that it remains accessible over time, even as technology evolves.

Public access URL

https://dans.knaw.nl/en/

All tags

• Technical Standards & Practices
• Netherlands
• 2005
• Academic cooperation
• Higher education institutes
• Established researchers
• Junior researchers
• Private R&D
• Public research institutes
• Dedicated support to research and technical infrastructures
• Accessibility

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