Sikt Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research

Overview

Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research is a Norwegian government agency providing IT infrastructure, research data services, and shared administrative solutions to the Norwegian education and research sector. A public administrative body under the Ministry of Education and Research, Sikt serves universities, colleges, research institutes, vocational schools, secondary schools, archives, specialized libraries, and the health sector across Norway.

History and Founding

Sikt was established on 1 January 2022 as a result of a merger between three predecessor organizations: NSD (Norwegian Centre for Research Data, AS), Uninett AS (the national research and education network), and Unit – the Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research. Each predecessor organization had a long independent history: NSD had been a member of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) since 1989, and was a former ISSP secretary. The merged agency consolidated decades of collaborative infrastructure-building in the Norwegian education sector, which traces its roots to shared solutions developed since the 1970s.

Collections and Services

Sikt provides a broad portfolio of services including national network and IT infrastructure, research data management and archiving, open access and open science coordination, journal license negotiation for higher education institutions, a national current research information system (CRIS), a national publication repository, data publication services, and guidance on data protection and research ethics. Sikt operates as Norway's service provider to CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives) and is a member of RDA (Research Data Alliance), ICPSR, the DDI Alliance, and the core scientific team of the European Social Survey.

Access and Usage

Sikt's services are primarily available to institutions in the Norwegian education and research sector. Its main offices are in Trondheim, Oslo, and Bergen. With approximately 400 employees, the agency develops services in collaboration with partner institutions and users. Many data services, including research data archiving and open access infrastructure, are broadly accessible to the Norwegian and international research community.