National Microdata Platform for Norwegian and International Research and Analysis

The service microdata.no provides researchers and analysts with online, self-service access to link and analyze registry data from Statistics Norway (SSB) without the need to apply for access to the data itself and while maintaining privacy of the registered individuals. Users of microdata.no never have direct access to view or download data; the results of the analyses are presented to users as anonymous statistics. A range of confidensialization mechanism are built into microdata.no and happen automatically for each analysis the user performs. This means that legally, users of microdata.no do not process personal data. Users can therefore freely link the data relevant to their analysis needs, conduct analyses, and produce statistical results that are continuously checked and subject to confidensialization mechanisms before being presented to the user. By sharing the code and scripts they have designed in microdata.no, researchers and analysts can facilitate peer reviews. Moreover, different user groups can create their own analysis communities to collaborate and share how they build analysis populations and how they have designed the analyses. The current version of microdata.no is continuously evolving. With the Microdata 2.0 project, funded by the Research Council of Norway from 2020 to 2023, Statistics Norway (SSB), Sikt - Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research and pilot partner the Norwegian Cancer Registry have developed microdata.no to meet even more needs in terms of analysis functionality and data volume. The service is now open for other register owners than SSB to make their data available for linkage and analysis. Project deliveries: - Increase the amount of data available in the service from about 120 variables when microdata.no was launched in 2018 to currently more than 500. - Timeliness has increased, following the release of Statistics Norway's statistics on various topics. - The service supports the FAIR principles: - Data is discoverable and explained in a separate variable explorer - Data found can be linked and analyzed immediately - Data on the same statistical unit are fully linkable, with a few exceptions due to legal conditions from the individual register owner - Analyses can easily be re-used, and analytical results can be reviewed - The service offers version-controlled data, with ongoing availability of new updates, editions, and error corrections without disrupting previous results. - The service can be used as a data explorer, where the user can build their own datasets and request the datasets as part of an ongoing application for access to registry data from Statistics Norway. - The built-in analysis functionality has been significantly improved, and several requested features for data processing, graphical representations, and regression analyses are being incorporated continuously. - The owners offer a wide range of courses, and there are video courses available for free use as an introduction to the service. The owners Sikt and SSB will continue the management, maintenance and further development of the service financed within their own budget frameworks and supported by user fees introduced from January 1, 2024. Data from several register owners in both the health and knowledge sectors are planned to be available during 2024. Statistics Norway has prepared about 100 variables from Statistics Norway with data on enterprises and businesses that will be made available in the service in the spring of 2024. Collaboration with OsloMet is underway for uploading survey data for linkage and analysis in microdata.no. In the expansion to include data from other register owners, self-service preparation, storage, and administration of the register owners' own data in the service are important principles. A comprehensive data administration tool has been developed for this purpose, where data owners also receive statistics on how their own data have been used. Necessary legal agreements are in place where the owners of microdata.no act as data processors for responsible register owners when they make their data available in microdata.no.

Microdata 2.0 will be a Norwegian microdata platform for national and international research, analysis and higher education. The infrastructure will be the next level of the microdata.no research service, realizing the potential of the RAIRD-technology. The main upgrades are - to widen the scope of SN data from the present 124 variables to some 1200-1500 variables, chosen in co-operation with the users - to use microdata.no as a dissemination platform for NSD microdata and survey data - to develop microdata.no to an infrastructure that any data owner, both register and researchers, may utilize to make their data accessible for research use In addition, the next generation of microdata.no will be facilitated to serve new groups like international researchers, public administration, and the business sector. The project also includes new analytical functions, and will support a digital access dialogue to indirectly identifiable data that need formal approvals. Microdata.no is based on technology developed by Statistics Norway (SN) and NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data in the RAIRD project. RAIRD focused on technological development of metadata driven data access and automated confidentiality control, both international novelties in micro data access systems. A critical part of the extension is to further generalize confidentiality methods, curate data and metadata according to models developed in RAIRD. For MIC2 to utilize them, they must be curated and enriched according to research demands. Tools to support this process will be released as part of the project. Microdata.no aims at a significant increase in research use of register data. During the first six months of service 174 researchers from 21 institutions connected to the platform.