This study is mapping the most significant challenges and obstacles for a reinforced Nordic cooperation on data resources. Focus is put on existing national databases and registers established mainly for administrative purposes but also the question of newly-generated scientific data is handled. The challenges are analysed from political, legal, ethical, organisational, technical and financial perspectives. The broad scope targets primarily policy makers involved in eScience development on national and/or Nordic level. Involved parties in the study are Nordic Council of Ministers, NordForsk, Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and CSC - IT Center for Science. Special focus has been put on the challenges for register-based research, since all the Nordic countries have a vast amount of population-based registers which are considered not to be used to their full potential in various research fields. One of the challenges is to find way to combine these registers with other research data and the Nordic countries have to find their own way of unique collaboration methods, since there are no equivalent pre-conditions for this kind of research in the rest of Europe. The study also gives a national overview of the current progress in the five Nordic countries, to raise awareness of important national initiatives which can contribute to a stronger collaboration on the Nordic level.

How regions and cities adapt to a Network Society and a globalized environment, the policies they pursue and how structures of governance are transformed in the pursuit of those policies are major themes in this volume. These issues are addressed with specific reference to the Nordic regions of Europe. Covering the four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden plus the Faroe Islands, this volume charts the changes in networking activities and related development initiatives that have taken place over the last ten years. This means analysing regions in their pursuit of new policies, partnerships and styles of representation. Through this process regions are becoming partners and players in European integration and a movement of integrative regionalism is taking shape which is different from inward looking identity regionalism or self-centred competitive regionalism and takes regions beyond lobbying in Brussels.

The 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, outlines an ambitious and universal plan of action for people, planet and prosperity as it seeks to strengthen universal peace and freedom. This report presents national and Nordic action on Agenda 2030 with the aim to inform and support the Nordic Council of Ministers in formulating a new Nordic Sustainable Development Programme. All Nordic countries are engaged and strongly committed to implementing Agenda 2030 and there is a broad societal interest in joint Nordic action. The existing Nordic Strategy for Sustainable Development and several other key initiatives within Nordic cooperation already contribute to the goals of Agenda 2030. A new Nordic Sustainable Development Programme can build upon a strong foundation and add further value to the national and international work done by the Nordic countries.

In Populations as Brands Aaro Tupasela extends the fields of critical data studies and nation branding into the realm of state controlled biobanking and healthcare data. Using examples from two Nordic countries - Denmark and Finland – he explores how these countries have begun to market and brand their resources using methods and practices drawn from the commercial sector. Tupasela identifies changes during the past ten years that suggest that state collected and maintained resources have become the object of valuation practices. Tupasela argues that this phenomenon constitutes a novel form of nation branding in which relations between the states, individuals and the private sector are re-aligned. The author locates the historical underpinnings of population branding in the field of medical genetics starting in the early 1960s but transforming significantly during the 2010s into a professional marketing activity undertaken at multiple levels and sites. In studying this recent phenomenon, Tupasela provides examples of how marketing material has become increasingly professional and targeted towards a broader audience, including the public. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of critical data studies and nation branding, as well as students of science and technology studies, sociology and marketing.

Sammanfattning.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2024-503/ In this report leading researchers within law and digitalisation from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Denmark present the fundamental characteristics of the digitalization of their national public administrations from a legal perspective. An important conclusion of the DigiLaw project is that the Nordic-Baltic countries possess different specialised expertise and experiences when it comes to public digitalisation, and from different angles and at various levels, all researchers recommend strengthening the Nordic-Baltic cooperation when it comes to sharing experiences and handling challenges related to public digitalization.