The newly formed Steering Group and adjunct members had their second meeting via Zoom on May 8. Various topics were discussed, such as collaboration with other Swedish infrastructures, ethical issues, and activities for 2024.

On March 9-10, the database managers of NEAR held a two-day workshop on-site at the Aging Research Center at Karolinska Institutet, with the main purpose of discussing and developing overall matters of database management. The first day was focused on publishing and sharing your data, where three representatives from the KI Data Access Unit (DAU) held a presentation about open access to research data, sensitive data, and legal aspects of storing data.

Photo: Maja Rudolphson and Maria Yohuang

In the evening, the database managers and NEAR Operational Group went out for dinner together at the restaurant “Stallmästaregården”.

Photo: Linnea Sjöberg

The second day was devoted to the NEAR application process and data delivery from the local databases and ended with lunch and a summary of the workshop. Overall, the workshop has rendered many discussions and new ideas, which will be implemented for future work within NEAR.

The NEAR Steering Board held an E-meeting on March 7. At the meeting, various topics were discussed, such as ongoing applications and projects, new personnel, budget, the new contract for 2023-2028, and future activities in NEAR.

The NEAR Steering Board held an E-meeting on October 6. At the meeting, various topics were discussed, such as procedures for handling NEAR applications, user-fees, renewal of the NEAR infrastructure grant, and future activities in NEAR. 

The NEAR database managers held an e-meeting on 28 May on local electronic application systems, codebooks and updates for the Swedish National Data Service (SND).

The NEAR Steering Board held an E-meeting on May 3. At the meeting, various topics were discussed, such as procedures for handling NEAR applications, user-fees, electronic application systems and the upcoming NEAR workshop. 

The NEAR Steering Board held an E-meeting on 30 November, lead by its new chair, Kristina Johnell. At the meeting the upcoming application to Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council) for a prolongation of the funding was discussed, as well as post doc positions to enhance the ongoing harmonization of data.

Gert Helgesson, Professor of Medical Ethics at Karolinska Institutet.

NEAR has had the first meetings with its Ethical and Scientific Advisory Boards.

At the ethical advisory board meeting, a future direction of NEAR as an ethically more aware actor was discussed. An actor that pulls knowledge from different fields together and is able to better describe the quality of health in the elderly.

The scientific advisors proposed new possible international forums where NEAR could help fill knowledge gaps. The meeting also discussed the shifting priorities in the new research landscape that has formed. Not least the increasing number of public-private partnerships that are proposed, and the discussion regarding the right to data for different partners.

The first Societal Advisory Board meeting took place 10th of November 2020 on Zoom. For a detailed list of the members in the Advisory Board please see: Members of the Societal Advisory Board.

The NEAR database managers have conducted two e-meetings regarding the new platform of NEAR on November 3d and November 13th.