Increasing Trustworthiness of European Digital Repositories: FSD's Contribution to the FIDELIS Project in 2025

The FIDELIS project aims to establish and consolidate a European network of FAIR‑enabling, Trustworthy Digital Repositories. Drawing on its experience as a certified trustworthy digital repository and CESSDA Service Provider, FSD helps ensure that project outputs are sustainable, and usable for repositories at different stages of maturity across Europe.

A group of people wearing name badges posing for a photo on a staircase.
Attendees of the EOSC EDEN & FIDELIS Kick-Off Meeting in February 2025 in Helsinki.

The European research ecosystem, and especially the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) (Opens in a new tab) , increasingly depends on digital repositories that are FAIR-enabling, trustworthy and sustainable. The three-year FIDELIS project (Opens in a new tab) (2025-2027) responds to this need by strengthening collaboration across repositories, by developing recommended and shared practices and by providing training that supports high-quality data stewardship.

In 2025, the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) played a significant role in advancing these objectives. Drawing on our long experience as a certified trustworthy digital repository and a CESSDA ERIC (Opens in a new tab) Service Provider, we contributed to conceptual development, empirical analysis, and practical implementation activities central to FIDELIS's impact, as well as to the project leadership. We focused on ensuring that project outputs are not only theoretically sound, but also usable by digital repositories at different stages of maturity.

Building an Evidence Base: Repository Landscape Analysis

A core contribution of FIDELIS in 2025 was a systematic analysis of the European digital repositories. FSD was actively involved in this work, contributing expertise to the design, analysis and interpretation of the survey, and opening of the data. FSD's contribution was also important in ensuring that discipline specific perspectives of social science data repositories were represented.

Key outputs include the FIDELIS landscape survey analysis and the openly available repository landscape dataset. They provide a detailed picture of repository governance models, service portfolios, policies and practices, and resourcing challenges across Europe. The dataset is complemented by openly published analysis scripts, ensuring transparency and reproducibility. These resources provide an evidence-based foundation for strategic decisions and further FIDELIS work. They also increase knowledge about repository practices and highlight the diversity of repositories and the contexts in which they operate.

Key outputs

Harmonising Repository Practices

Beyond describing and analysing the landscape, FIDELIS focused on harmonising how repository trustworthiness can be understood. The main output in 2025 was the Transparent Trustworthy Repository Attributes Matrix (TTRAM). It addresses fragmentation across existing Trustworthy Digital Repository (TDR) standards and various repository assessment frameworks by aligning key repository functions, activities, and characteristics. TTRAM helps repositories systematically reflect their practices and identify areas for improvement, and understand how they relate to broader trust frameworks. In addition, TTRAM provides a shared vocabulary for dialogue between a wide variety of stakeholders including repositories, researchers, standard bodies, and funders.

We contributed to building, testing, and early adoption of TTRAM, bringing a practitioner's perspective informed by experience about certification processes and continuous quality development. At the same time, the work helped us to identify some areas where we could further improve FSD's practices and procedures.

FSD also participated in TTRAM workshops and training interventions, helping to translate the framework into actionable practice and to foster peer learning across a variety of repositories.

Key outputs

Supporting Early Adopters and Capacity Building

A defining feature of FIDELIS is its strong focus on support, implementation, and community uptake. FSD contributed by adding value for early adopters of the network and by coordinating and supporting training activities. Through the development of the training strategy and running the first round of training activities, our contribution emphasised the importance of approaches that address shared community needs, are modular and practical, and are sensitive to organisational contexts.

Rather than promoting compliance-driven checklists, we advocated reflective self-assessment and peer exchange as key drivers for the sustainable improvement of repository practices and the upskilling of repository staff. Building on existing best practices also helped to reinforce the intended networked nature of the community.

These activities demonstrate how relatively modest investments in coordination and training can strengthen repository practices across Europe, while delivering clear value to both the academic community and funders.

Key outputs

Establishing a Network of TDRs

The FIDELIS project will establish a European network of FAIR-enabling trustworthy digital repositories. In 2025, the focus was on preparing and setting up the Network. FSD contributed to drafting proposals for the Network governance and business plan with an eye on its long-term feasibility and sustainability. In addition, we participated in creating and organising an interest group on legal challenges. FSD also joined the Network as a provisional member.

One goal of the Network is to represent its member repositories to key stakeholders. In 2025, we participated in providing feedback to the EOSC Federation Handbook and contributed to the discussions that led to a Network position statement.

Key outputs

Long-Term Impact and Value for the Research Community

Overall, FSD's contribution to FIDELIS has strengthened the project's ability to deliver practical, evidence-based, and sustainable outcomes. Through active work on landscape analysis, TTRAM development, capacity building, and Network establishing, and by presenting project results in webinars and conferences, FSD helped ensure that FIDELIS outputs are strategically relevant and usable for repositories and other stakeholders.

FIDELIS will provide essential building blocks for preserving Europe's research data assets, and keeping them FAIR, for the long term. Investment in coordination, harmonisation, and shared tools can deliver lasting infrastructure benefits. The project strengthens EOSC's capacity to support data-driven science and advances open science practices in Europe and globally. Together, FIDELIS project partners and the Network members contribute to a stronger European research data ecosystem that extends well beyond the lifetime of a single project.

In 2026, FSD will continue advancing the objectives of FIDELIS in several work packages. The goals include enhancing maturity and capabilities of digital repositories, enabling federation, and strengthening the European Network of trustworthy repositories through active support, peer-to-peer mentoring and training, as well as consolidating the Network and the added value it can bring to repositories.

Outputs where FSD's experts have contributed

Authors: Mari Kleemola, Henna Kaartinen, Sanni Tujunen, Tuomas J. Alaterä. Photo: FIDELIS