Chapter 4: Nordic added value in research infrastructure collaboration

NordForsk and NORDHORCS play a key role in supporting joint Nordic research initiatives of high scientific quality and with a strong Nordic added value. The support role also includes RI collaboration, for which the Nordic added value is similar to that of research [5] but to a larger extent builds on long term trust and collaboration experience between researchers as well as RI leadership. Nordic added value in the case of RI cooperation includes, e.g., co-financing to reduce costs, cross-border usage which improves the availability, cooperation to formulate a stronger Nordic voice in international RI cooperations, and possibly also to get the maximum out of future investments by coordinating national RI roadmaps. In addition to activities that are directly related to the RIs, there is also a substantial collaboration between researchers using the infrastructure facilities, activities such as courses and training, which helps in establishing Nordic networks between early career researchers, and conferences and exchange of knowledge related to the usage of specific RIs.

It is clear from my discussions with RI representatives from national funding agencies, RI leaderships and user communities that there is a strong belief in Nordic cooperation. This is shown by the extensive existing RI cooperation. Examples of such on-going activities are presented below with the aim of serving as a background to discussions on to what extent NordForsk and NORDHORCS could stimulate further RI cooperation.

4.1 Follow up of NRIN recommendations

The NORIA-net “Nordic Research Infrastructures Network” (NRIN) was launched in 2009 with the aim of strengthening Nordic cooperation on RI. NRIN’s work resulted for example in the report “Enhancing Nordic Research Infrastructure Cooperation” which was published 2012. The report presented eight recommendations concerning Nordic cooperation, many of them which concerned international RIs. During the ten years since the report was presented, NordForsk as well as other stakeholders have actively followed these recommendations which has led to a very positive development of Nordic RI-cooperation. Some examples are given in the comments below:

  1. National engagements in ESFRI projects of common strategic priority in the Nordics should be coordinated.

    Comment: Today there are 33 international RIs that have at least three Nordic countries as members, 24 of them are ESFRI “Landmarks” (see Appendix 7). The network calls that NordForsk has had over the years have yielded results. Several of those who received earlier NordForsk funding as well as some of those that currently have support from the Nordic RI Hubs initiative (see below) are such networks that exist at the Nordic level. Concerning the future, there are two ESFRI “projects”, the European Brain Research Infrastructures (EBRAINS) and the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), with large interest from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden in both cases).
  2. The Nordic countries should identify and possibly remove legal barriers to the cross-border sharing of data.

    Comment: A NORIA-Net on Registers and Biobanks existed from 2011 until 2014. The report Joint Nordic Registers and Biobanks - A goldmine for health and welfare research summarizes the output from this venture. Several other initiatives have been initiated during the last ten years aiming to increase the use of sensitive data across Nordic borders, for example the Nordic Commons, a project with the aim of testing solutions and practical approaches to sharing health data between regional and national actors in the Nordic countries.[6] One observation made after contacts with researchers dependent on data from other Nordic countries is that the different national interpretation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has introduced some limitations to data sharing and Nordic research collaboration. Presently the European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation that aims to facilitate health data sharing at the European level is being negotiated which will have impact on secondary use of health data.
  3. Increase Nordic information exchange and coordination of administrative participation in international RI meetings.

    Comment: There are several examples of such coordination, some of them formalized (see Appendix 7) but in many cases informal and due to the fact that Nordic researchers know each other. It lies outside my assignment to make a complete survey of Nordic collaborations related to the international RIs. However, to learn more about how such collaborations work in practice I have been in contact with users of a few of them, both single sited and distributed RIs, which are known to have an established Nordic research community. It is evident from these contacts that the user communities play an important role for Nordic collaboration. This kind of “bottom-up” approach, to stimulate contacts between research communities in the Nordic countries, is therefore strongly recommended as a general tool to strengthen collaboration focused around RIs.
  4. International memberships in RI organizations should be evaluated at the Nordic level.

    Comment: The four Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are members of the ESRF through the consortium Nordsync. NRIN initiated an evaluation of Nordsync and the Nordic membership of the ESRF which was published 2012. NordForsk also performed an analysis of EMBL from a Nordic perspective which was followed up by a study made by Technopolis.[7] The Swedish Research Council performed two studies: “Survey of Swedish Research Council memberships in international research infrastructure organisations” from 2018, and “National benefits from Swedish membership of international research infrastructures 2016-2019” published in 2021. In the latter case the data collection was performed together with the Research Council of Finland and the Dutch Research Council and also involved discussion with the other Nordic countries.
  5. Joint Nordic partnerships in RIs should be considered for new RI involvements at the international, European and/or regional levels.

    Comment: There are a few examples of RIs that have been established after the NRIN report was published. The partnership between Sweden and Denmark as host nations for the European Spallation Source (ESS) ERIC has deepened over the past ten years. EISCAT 3D has been operated by EISCAT Scientific Association which is a registered organization in Sweden as well as in Norway and Finland. The ownership of Nordic Optical Telescope has changed from a Swedish foundation into university co-ownership between the Aarhus University and the University of Turku with several other universities in the Nordic region as partners. The Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration, NeIC, is hosted by NordForsk with partners from all the Nordic countries and Estonia.

    Concerning “landmark” RI at the ESFRI roadmap, in addition to the Swedish/Danish ESS facility and EISCAT 3D, for which Sweden is the host, Finland has a central role in Euro-HPC JU and acts as host for ACTRIS ERIC, EUROBIOIMAGING ERIC and ICOS ERIC. Norway is the host nation for ECCSEL ERIC and CESSDA ERIC and for SIOS. As mentioned above, there are only two ESFRI “projects” with more than one Nordic country listed as prospective member, EBRAINS and GGP.
  6. NordForsk should continue to fund joint use of national RIs in the Nordic countries.

    Comment: NordForsk has had two RI related calls in response to this recommendation. Nordic Networks on RI in 2014, and in 2020 the call for Nordic Research Infrastructure Hubs. The first call resulted in 12 funded networks. The main aim was for the networks to become a Nordic platform, thereby facilitating more coordinated Nordic participation in international RI projects. The Nordic RI Hubs were aimed at strengthening international competitiveness and facilitate the development of world-leading Nordic RI environments. Seven such hubs have received support from NordForsk. Among those are Nordic EPOS - A FAIR Nordic EPOS Data Hub, Nordic EMBL Partnership Hub for Molecular Medicine, and Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructures, BNMI directly related to European RIs whereas the remaining four have the character of joint effort between national RIs. A more detailed presentation of the Hubs is given in Section 4.2.

    The Joint Nordic Neutron Research Initiative, which was launched by NordForsk in 2015, had the objectives to increase the number of Nordic-region researchers skilled at utilising neutrons in scientific analysis, as well as raise the competency level regarding neutron scattering, particularly among younger researchers and other groups without extensive experience in this field. The programme is designed to support long-term use of ESS among the Nordic countries.
  7. The Nordic countries should continue to strengthen the coordination of activities relating to RIs. NRIN believes this should be achieved by continuing the networking activities developed under the NRIN project. However, rather than prolonging the current NRIN NORIA-net, a new group should be put together with a mandate from the national funders.

    Comment: The High-level Group on Research Infrastructures appointed by NordForsk had a four-year mandate from 2013 until 2016 and acted as strategic advisor to NordForsk on research infrastructure cooperation activities and policy-related issues. The Nordic Research Infrastructure Co-operation Committee (NRICC) was appointed by NordForsk in 2016. NRICC serves in an advisory capacity to the NordForsk Board on issues relating to research infrastructure. Its primary objective is to support joint Nordic RI efforts and to highlight the potential Nordic added value inherent in such collaboration. The committee’s activities include examining Nordic funding mechanisms for research infrastructure; ways to expand the use of, and access to, research infrastructure across national borders; and, ultimately, how to strengthen international cooperation.
  8. The possibility of establishing joint Nordic e-Infrastructure platforms for data-intensive distributed RIs should be explored, particularly those which would be linked to one or more ESFRI projects. The environmental projects ICOS, LIFEWATCH and EPOS and the biomedical projects ELIXIR and BBMRI should be given priority.

    Comment: Ongoing Nordic collaborations can be found in most of the above-mentioned RIs, in many cases they have or have received financial support from NordForsk. All Nordic countries, Finland in particular, contribute to the Euro-HPC Joint Undertaking. NeIC coordinates the Nordic WLCG TIER-1 facility, the Nordic-Baltic FAIR data forum, and the Nordic Microdata Database project.

4.2 Nordic Research Infrastructure Hubs

The overall objective of the NordForsk call for Nordic Research Infrastructure Hubs was to: “strengthen international competitiveness and facilitate the development of world-leading Nordic RI environments. The initiative allows Nordic universities, university colleges and universities of applied sciences to use Nordic cross-border cooperation as a tool for achieving their own strategic objectives, thereby building long-term institutional capacity.” NordForsk received 33 applications in response to the call for and was able to fund seven of them with a budget up to 2,5 million NOK. The funding period is from 2020 until 2023. Most hubs had a delayed start due to the pandemic.

These funded infrastructure hubs are:

  • Nordic EMBL Partnership Hub for Molecular Medicine
    Project leader: Poul Nissen, Aarhus University
  • The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) Science Centre
    Project leader: Hans Kjeldsen, Aarhus University
  • Nordic EPOS - A FAIR Nordic EPOS Data Hub
    Project leader: Annakaisa Korja, University of Helsinki
  • Nordic MEG Hub: Collaboration of all Nordic magnetoencephalography infrastructures on education, management, and dissemination
    Project leader: Tiina Parviainen, University of Jyväskylä
  • Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructures, BNMI
    Project leader: Oddmund Bakke, University of Oslo
  • Nordic Research Infrastructure Hub on Cold Climate Engineering – COLDHUB
    Project leader: Jukka Tuhkuri, Aalto University
  • Nordic hub on Advanced Transmission Electron Microscopy in the Physical Sciences
    Project leader: Per Persson, Linköping University

Since this is the only ongoing funding related to RI, I decided to make a more detailed investigation regarding the call. The Hubs have submitted progress reports to NordForsk which have given me useful information related to my study. In addition to these reports, I have conducted interviews with the project leaders of all seven Nordic RI Hubs. The main issues raised for discussion with the hubs related to activities such as courses, training, and networking. Nordic conferences, mobility and cross-border use were also discussed. The main results of these discussions are summarised below.

Each Hub is different depending on which type of research being conducted and the RI belonging to the Hub. However, as far as the Nordic collaboration is concerned and how the criteria for NordForsk funding were expressed, there are also large similarities. All Hubs have a history of Nordic collaboration prior to the present NordForsk funding. Some of them have received funding from previous NordForsk networking programs. Since RIs normally operate during a long period of time, usually several decades, collaborations can hopefully continue also in the foreseeable future. This points at one of the most important aspects of Nordic collaboration, to foster contacts between the next generation of researchers and RI managers. Not surprisingly, there is a strong belief among the hubs that facilitating contacts between young researchers in the Nordic countries by organising courses and networking activities is a key activity to maintain long-term Nordic collaboration. To some extent such activities can exist without explicit funding, but it is my impression that the present funding has had substantial effect both on the quality and quantity of the activities, which also include seminars and conferences.

It is clear from the discussions that cross-border usage is rather rare in the case of distributed RIs. To some extent, this is because the equipment in each node is designed to fit the local/national needs and might therefore be less relevant for researchers from other countries which due to the same reason have their own needs mainly fulfilled. Instead, several project leaders mentioned that requests to learn from each other, for instance in the case of procurement of new equipment and operation of equipment, are more common. However, since also local RIs get more advanced and more expensive, the interest in cross-border usage might increase in the future. Ways to stimulate cross-border usage should therefore be explored. In the case of the single sited Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), which is placed on La Palma, Canary Islands, the situation with respect to cross-border usage is of course very different from that of distributed RIs. Most observations still require the presence of the researcher at the site of the RI but NOT also offers the possibility to make observations “from home”. This possibility has also opened for usage of the telescope by, for instance, high school students, a very interesting example of “open science”. The RI hub COLD-HUB is somewhere in between distributed and single sited RIs. COLD-HUB offer unique laboratories (ice basin, cold rooms) and field sites (Svalbard, Greenland) which are open for cross-border usage but also with considerable costs which might limit the possibilities for researchers to make use of these facilities.

The Hubs that are part of a larger distributed European RIs (Nordic EMBL, Nordic EPOS, BNMI) express that collaboration within the framework of the Nordic RI Hubs make the Nordic members more united which gives the Nordic countries a common voice with a stronger impact on future strategies of the European RIs compared to if each country is acting on its own. Moreover, since these three Hubs build on national networks it makes them less dependent on a few individual PI’s and therefore more sustainable in the context of European partnerships.

The ownership and the financing of investment and daily operational costs of the distributed RIs that are partners in the Hubs is not an issue for NordForsk, it is covered by each country in their own processes. However, in the case of NOT which is co-owned by Aarhus University and the University of Turku with a number of other Nordic universities as partners, financing is indeed an issue which NOT shares with other large single-sited RIs. The discussions with NOT have given important insights to both strengths and weaknesses of Nordic Co-ownership and partnership. This is be discussed further in Chapter 5.

4.3 Additional observations

Particle physics and CERN: In the current situation there are ongoing joint Nordic activities both related to the experiments performed at CERN and in preparation for Council and committee meetings. In the long-term perspective, it is important to maintain such activities in order for the Nordic countries to have a stronger impact on the development of CERN, in particular regarding the future expansion plans of CERN.

Geophysics, EPOS and national security: The Nordic seismic network, which is centred in Iceland, started as a project financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The central components (hardware and software) were designed and built within the project and became operational around 1991, has been gradually expanded, and are still used today. Today, EPOS and Nordic seismic network provide resources to support society and industry with information not only on security needs in the face of natural disasters but also on mineral exploration, geothermal energy, and man-made hazards. The relevance to national security is particularly important in the present situation of geopolitical instability. 13

Brain research and EBRAINS: There is a large research community in the field of neuroscience, and brain research in the Nordics. Research groups collaborate extensively within the European Flagship Human Brain Project. The Nordic MEG Hub constitutes a collaboration of all Nordic magnetoencephalography infrastructures on education, management, and dissemination funded through NordForsk's Nordic Research Infrastructure Hubs funding instrument.

EBRAINS is one of the few research infrastructures listed as “projects” on the ESFRI Roadmap 2021, which (at least) three Nordic countries have expressed interests in. Based on the strong track record of Nordic collaborations in brain research EBRAINS is indeed an opportunity for the Nordics to become a strong player in the next phase of European collaboration on brain research.

Use of national RIs across-borders: The need for advanced experimental or digital RI will most likely increase in the future. From the landscapes analysis presented above it is clear that there are several levels of RI from local, national, Nordic to the European or sometimes even global. European RIs are normally subject to cross-border usage either via partnerships using the European organizational models (ERIC and JU) but there is also a possibility to access the RI by answering call from the RIs solely based on scientific quality of the proposed usage. The actual costs for usage vary a lot depending on the type of RI and the way it is operated. Usually, the actual costs are larger in the case of single sited RIs than for distributed. Special attention should therefore be given to single sited national RIs to both make them more attractive for cross-border usage but also to help the RIs to cover the operational costs.

[5] https://www.norden.org/en/publication/rethinking-nordic-added-value-research
[6] Nordic biobanks and registers, a basis for innovative research on health and welfare.
[7] A Nordic perspective on EMBL