They receive the VSS award for the development of a research data platform

Parvaneh Westerlund, Johanna Cinber and Sofi Larsson from the University Library receives this year's award for good development efforts within Professional Services. The trio has successfully worked to implementing the research data platform LTU Drive.

The award for development efforts within Professional Services, or the VSS award as it is also called, is intended to highlight the importance of the employees who, through their efforts, commitment and cooperation, contribute to the university's development.

“In order for the university's activities to maintain high quality in education and research, we also need professional support. There were many fine nominations and I feel proud when I see the development and improvement work that is taking place within Professional Services. This year's winner was a group with a strong development drive, good collaboration skills and great commitment whose work will improve and simplify the management of research data,” says University Director Maria Lundgren.

Parvaneh Westerlund, Johanna Cinber and Sofi Larsson have together and in close collaboration with the academy run the development project 'Research Data Platform LTU Drive'.

“It feels great and honorable that our work is recognized. Our hope is that more researchers will open their eyes to LTU Drive in connection with the award. LTU Drive is a first step towards secure storage and sharing of the university's research data,” says Johanna Cinber.

The prize money is SEK 50,000 and will be used for skills development.

“We plan to make study visits to other universities. Preferably European universities to see how they work, with the development of the European Open Science Cloud,” says Johanna Cinber.

The award will be distributed at the university's Award Ceremony on 7 November.

Read more about LTU Drive

Citation for this year's VSS prize

“Parvaneh Westerlund, Johanna Cinber and Sofi Larsson have successfully worked to implement LTU Drive, a service that enables an open and accessible science system. The research data platform will simplify and streamline the handling of data, but also make the handling safer based on legal and security requirements.

The group has, in close collaboration with academia, developed learning modules, guidelines, processes and working methods, and investigated and made proposals on how so-called Data Champions can be introduced as direct support to research groups.

For Luleå University of Technology, research is essential and the introduction of LTU Drive is an important contribution to better meet the requirements of funders, better provide conditions for coordinating and participating in larger research projects, provide better opportunities for publishing and archiving data and reduce the risk of data loss.”