As an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO), DANS is among Europe's leading repositories. Established in 2005 to promote sustained access to digital research data, DANS offers domain-specific digital repositories known as Data Stations. These secure digital environments enable individual researchers or research groups to store datasets with comprehensive metadata, version control, and tools to auto-complete information. The Data Stations cover various domains, including:
• Social Sciences and Humanities,
• Archaeology,
• Life Sciences,
• Physical and Technical Sciences.
In addition to these services, DANS offers both disciplinary-specific and general training in areas such as Open Science, research data management (RDM), and FAIR data principles. These training sessions are available in various formats, including in-person, online, and asynchronous courses.
DANS also participates in national and international projects aimed at enabling data reuse, developing research data infrastructures, promoting Open Science, and advancing sustainable data storage and preservation.