Become an IDA user – who is IDA for?

If you operate under a Finnish higher education institution or state research institute and you want to store research data, you can apply for IDA storage space from your home organisation. Your organisation’s IDA contact person will process your application and can help you to decide if IDA is the right choice for your data (see list of IDA contact persons in organisations in eduuni wiki). If your organisation has no named contact person, please check the status of IDA usage from your organisation’s data support/research services.

Getting started

1. Applying for IDA Storage

Do the Fairdata services seem like the right place to store and publish your research data? Note that the descriptive information about the dataset will always be open to others, but access to the data itself may be restricted. You can apply for IDA storage space for your data through the MyCSC portal. Instructions for applying for IDA storage.

2. Your Organization’s Data Support Evaluates your Application

The designated IDA contact person from your organization’s data support will process your application and can assist in assessing whether IDA is a suitable service for your data. If necessary, your organization’s data support may recommend services better suited for your dataset.

Please note, that the CSC project using IDA needs to have a project manager with an active user account at all times. The project manager can be, in addition to the researcher, another researcher from the same project or, in some cases, a representative from the organization’s data support. We recommend coordinating with your home organization in advance to determine who will manage IDA usage in the long term.

3. Storage, Freezing, Description, and Publication of the Data

Once your home organization approves your IDA application, you can start storing data in the IDA service. After transferring the data to the IDA service, you can freeze it in IDA and then describe and publish it using the Qvain tool. Quick guide to publishing data.

Granted IDA storage space can be used as long as the Terms of Use are met. The same IDA space can be used for data from multiple research projects.


IDA from Organisation Perspective

The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture (Minedu) offers the right to use the research data storage service IDA to the Finnish higher education institutions and research institutes. Minedu can grant the right to use IDA directly, separately from the aforementioned organisational use rights. The full use policy is available at “Terms and Policies” (in Finnish).

Each organisation has a use right and quota in IDA service (IDA quotas by organisation). Organisations can apply to increase their IDA quota, if needed. Instructions are in IDA’s Use Policy (in Finnish).

If you wish to name an IDA contact person for your organisation (Finnish higher education institution or a state research institute), please see information for IDA contact persons in eduuni wiki (in Finnish).