Dutch universities, scientific institutes team up to protect scientific data in U.S.
Dutch universities and scientific institutes are teaming up to secure scientific data in the United States in case the American government pulls the plug on research institutes or projects, NOS reports.
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the umbrella organization for Dutch universities UNL, and the IT organization for higher education Surf are working together to map out how they can ensure continued access to data on American servers. Databases with scientific literature are often hosted in the US and are indispensable for researchers worldwide. Dutch higher education is also worried about collaboration projects with Americans.
The Trump administration has plans to restrict and cut funding to research in at least the fields of climate science and gender research. But in other fields, people are also worried about whether data stored in the United States is safe, with the American government targeting universities and scientific research.
“We share the concerns within the scientific community about securing research data,” a spokesperson for the NWO told the broadcaster. “That is why we have joined forces to inventory which specific data now needs a new, secure place. There is no good overview yet, and that is also difficult to obtain because many organizations in the US have difficulty communicating openly about this.”
“The process has only just started. We are inventorying which data exactly is at risk because of the Trump government’s approach,” said a spokesperson for the UNL. “Because we cannot do everything, we will probably also have to set priorities. That is now up to the scientists themselves. We are also mapping out how we should secure the data.”
It will be impossible to store all scientific data currently in the US in the Netherlands. The Dutch institutions are therefore seeking cooperation with other countries. Their goal is to prevent knowledge from disappearing forever because someone in the US flips a switch. Scientists don’t want to look back in a few years and think that this could have been prevented, Magchiel Bijsterbosch of Surf said.
And not all data can be saved. For example, biomedical sciences often use organic material that is stored in refrigerators in American institutes. Climate science, with all its satellite instruments and years of measurement series, will also need more than a digital rescue operation.
