Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)

Overview

NINA Data (data.nina.no) is the open environmental data portal of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), providing public access to ecological, biological, and environmental datasets generated through NINA's research and monitoring programs. It serves as a repository for species occurrence data, biodiversity records, and ecological research outputs.

Host Institution

The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) is Norway's leading institution for applied ecological research, established in 1988 as an independent foundation. Headquartered in Trondheim with branch offices throughout Norway, NINA conducts long-term strategic research and commissioned applied research to support international conventions, decision-support systems, and resource management. It is registered as a data publisher with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Collections and Data Holdings

NINA Data hosts a range of ecological datasets published through NINA's research programs. Holdings include species occurrence datasets — such as the NINA insect database with over 171,000 records — as well as data from monitoring projects covering terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. Data are formatted and published according to the Darwin Core standard and are linked to global repositories including GBIF. Datasets cover most major invertebrate groups, seabird tracking, freshwater fish, and large carnivore monitoring, among other domains.

Access and Usage

Data on the portal is freely accessible and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0). Users can browse, download, and cite datasets. The portal is integrated with GBIF, which provides additional discoverability and citation tracking. NINA also makes data available through GitHub (NINAnor) for software, scripts, and analytical tools used in data processing.