SIKT - KUNNSKAPSSEKTORENS TJENESTELEVERANDOR

Their core work

SIKT is Norway's national agency for shared services in education and research, providing IT infrastructure, data management, and digital services to the Norwegian academic sector. Within H2020, they contribute expertise in open science infrastructure, research data management, and cloud-based research services — primarily as a third-party provider supporting larger European initiatives like OpenAIRE and EOSC. Their real-world role is operating and maintaining the technical backbone that enables Norwegian researchers to share, access, and preserve research outputs according to open science principles.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

SIKT's early H2020 involvement (2018-2019) was squarely focused on open access infrastructure, open scholarship tools, and cloud-based research services — the building blocks of the European Open Science Cloud. By 2020-2024, their scope broadened: they maintained their open science core but expanded into social science survey infrastructure (ESS-SUSTAIN-2) and urban environmental monitoring (PAUL). This suggests a trajectory from pure IT infrastructure provision toward domain-specific research support services.

SIKT is moving from generic open science infrastructure toward embedding their data and cloud services into specific research domains like social sciences and environmental monitoring — making them increasingly relevant as a technical partner for domain-focused consortia.

How they like to work

SIKT operates almost exclusively as a third-party contributor (4 of 5 projects), providing specialized technical services to large consortia rather than leading or even formally partnering. Their 179 unique partners across 37 countries reflect the massive scale of the EOSC and OpenAIRE ecosystems they plug into, rather than direct bilateral relationships. This is a service-provider model: you bring them in when you need reliable national-level research infrastructure expertise and operational capacity.

Connected to 179 unique partners across 37 countries, though this breadth stems from participation in pan-European infrastructure projects (OpenAIRE, EOSC) with very large consortia. Their network is wide but indirect — they are a node in Europe's research infrastructure ecosystem rather than a hub building their own partnerships.

What sets them apart

SIKT is one of the few national-level research service agencies that bridges IT infrastructure operations with research data policy and open science compliance. As Norway's designated provider, they bring institutional stability and government backing that university IT departments or commercial providers cannot match. For consortium builders, SIKT offers a credible Norwegian node with hands-on experience running EOSC-compatible services at national scale.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OpenAIRE-Advance
  Their only project as a formal participant (not third party), with EUR 271,700 in direct EC funding — the flagship open science infrastructure initiative in Europe
• EOSC Future
  Key contribution to the European Open Science Cloud, representing SIKT's role in shaping Europe's research data infrastructure
• PAUL
  An unexpected departure from pure research infrastructure into urban greenhouse gas monitoring, signaling diversification into environmental applications