ACCESS Life Course Database: Upgrade and Expansion

Ageing and life course studies constitute an important research area for social- and health sciences. In Norway, studies that follow the same individuals over a longer period of time have been relatively scarce. Through the ACCESS Upgrade infrastructure, researchers and students will gain access to updated and upgraded longitudinal life course data for more than 11,000 Norwegians born between 1922 and 1966. Data from the Norwegian Life course, Ageing and Generation panel study (NorLAG) form the basis of this infrastructure. NorLAG combines survey data with information from public registers addressing key life domains: work and retirement, family relations, leisure time, health and health behaviour, care, quality of life, etc. The data provide unique opportunities for tracing individuals through different life phases, for analysing role changes and life events over time, and for exploring the consequences of societal, demographic and economic change. This way, ACCESS Upgrade will strengthen the foundation for empirical ageing and welfare research and provide an important tool for research that can feed into knowledge and development of the welfare society. The upgrade will ensure that researchers have access to data through new systems that are flexible, secure and user-friendly. The infrastructure will also establish meeting grounds where researchers, students and other stakeholders can come together and discuss topics of relevance for the infrastructure. The portal for NorLAG data (norlag.nsd.no) was launched already halfway the establishment phase of ACCESS Upgrade (January 27th 2020). With this launch, researchers and students gained access to complete survey data (from three waves of data collections: 2002, 2007 and 2017) and annual register data (until 2017). Quality assurance and documentation have been ongoing since the launch, and has resulted in three updated versions, published in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The latest version (https://doi.org/10.18712/norlag_v4) includes updated registry data until 2022. The launch of this fourth version of the database in the spring of 2023 marked the end of the project's establishment phase and the transition to the operational phase. In the establishment phase, the main focus was on quality assurance and documentation of the study and data, in addition to user testing, evaluation, improvement and development of technical solutions. This work has been carried out in regular dialogue with various user groups and the project's campus group, which has consisted of individuals teaching quantitative methods at Norwegian universities. A campus file, specially adapted for teaching, was launched in 2022. In addition to the documentation available in the portal, the study and data have been documented through a scientific article published in 2021 in the International Journal of Epidemiology: Cohort Profile: The Norwegian life course, ageing and generation study (NorLAG) (doi/10.1093/ije/dyaa280/6120386) and a documentation report published in the spring of 2023 (https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3065140). Users and other stakeholders of the NorLAG study are kept informed about the progress and development of the infrastructure through workshops, presentations, and newsletters, in addition to the website (the NorLAG-portal). From May 1st, 2023, the project entered the operational phase where user support and communication, and maintenance of the technical solutions that ensure continued preservation and sharing of the data will continue. ACCESS Upgrade is hosted by NOVA at OsloMet - founder of the NorLAG study, and SIKT: The Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research.

This infrastructure project represents an upgrade and expansion of the ACCESS Life Course Database, which aims at facilitating free access to up-to-date, quality assured longitudinal, social science, life course data. Adding new survey and register information constitutes an expansion of the previous ACCESS infrastructure from two to three survey waves and from 10 to 20 years of register data. An important endeavor is to enable increased sharing of these data and integrate them With previous waves. This requires comprehensive data management: data must be cleaned, validated, documented, harmonised with previous waves of survey and register data, and organised and stored in a manner that optimises use for external users. Such efforts require concerted action, a combination of in-depth scientific knowledge and technological innovations in data archiving, embedded in a collective infrastructure. Project partners NOVA and NSD propose a clear sequence of data curation and procedural steps for the establishment phase of the upgraded ACCESS infrastructure: Project management, Data processing, Data documentation, Data storage and sharing solutions, and User communication and involvement. This way, ACCESS Upgrade provides a powerful tool for research and education in Norway, as well as for international research collaborations addressing challenges associated with population ageing. The infrastructure will provide a platform for data sharing between research communities in Norway, which is important for moving a field forward in a way that neither group can do on its own. To facilitate use beyond research, and contribute to evidence-based policy making, ACCESS Upgrade will incorporate specific dissemination activities to engage civil society, industry, policy makers and other stakeholders.