Tryggve Introduction
Quick Facts
The project is managed by NeIC, the Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration, and steered together by the national nodes of ELIXIR (the European infrastructure for Biological Information, Elixir) and NeIC.
Area: Biomedical Science (BMS)
Status: Execution phase
Partners: Elixir nodes in DK, FI, NO, SE
Duration: 3 years: until 2017-10-21
Volume: 8 Full-time equivalents / year
Project Owner: Joel Hedlund
Project Manager: Antti Pursula
Flyer (pdf): Quick facts on Tryggve
Slides in SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/anttipursula/150618-tryggve-update
To contact the project please send email to project leader Antti Pursula or project owner Joel Hedlund.
Project mailing list tryggve-news is used for disseminating project information in the form of newsletters as well as other announcements. Please subscribe to the mailing list by sending an email to sympa@postit.csc.fi with the mail subject as subscribe tryggve-news FirstName LastName
Project goals
The project aims to provide researchers a trusted set of services to share and analyze sensitive biomedical data, across Nordic countries. This will be supplemented with a searchable availability registry for finding out what data resources are available for research. Furthermore, the project will work on facilitating the process of getting access and permissions to utilize the stored sensitive data. In one aspect, Tryggve can provide pilot implementations for still wider collaboration on sensitive data, for example in the context of ELIXIR Europe.
Summary of the project aims:
- Improve current practical routines for sharing sensitive data, to give scientists more time for science.
- Create a productive work environment where it is easier to follow the legal requirements than to break them.
- Ensure that only authorised persons can use only their data.
- Integrate national initiatives and solutions.
- Interconnect platforms with highest possible security.
- Make existing data discoverable by making metadata searchable.
- Prove that this will be more secure than current best practice.
Sensitive data in biomedical context
The bio- and medical sciences strive to cure disease, improve quality of life and mitigate societal and environmental risks. Like all science, these fields need to build upon a solid foundation of facts. However, the facts involved often include highly sensitive data on individuals, such as gene sequences, data on drinking or smoking habits, or presence of inherited disease in the family.
These data are collected confidentially and according to terms of allowed use signed by the donors. Donors contribute data for many reasons, for example to advance science and cure disease, or to know more about their own disease condition.
This type of data is currently routinely shared, also across borders, in accordance with the terms of allowed use. This has many benefits: access to more data helps researchers to draw better conclusions more quickly; it is cheaper and quicker than collecting new data; and it makes better use of the donors’ contributions.
Improving current practical routines
The current practical routines for storing, using and sharing sensitive data have not moved with the times, and are time-consuming, cumbersome and error-prone. For example, it is alarmingly easy to make simple mistakes such as saving data on a USB stick or working with it on a personal laptop, despite the fact that such activities are, in fact, illegal.
The Tryggve project aims to improve these practical routines, to create a productive work environment where it is easier to follow the legal requirements than to break them, and to give scientists more time for science.
Tryggve project is funded by NeIC and ELIXIR Nodes of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.