Reuse data and search for existing datasets

Why use secondary data ?

Using data collected by other researchers can be highly beneficial for your research.

1. You may want to find data similar to yours but collected in other locations or during different time period (for comparison or discussion).
2. You may want to include data in your research project proposal.
3. You may want to provide information in a paper without collecting data yourself.

How to proceed ?

Check whether existing data are available for reuse, for example by consulting relevant repositories.

You may find data through several channel. For example:

1. EOSC (European Open Science Cloud): The EOSC EU Node offers easy access to diverse data, publications, software, and services from across Europe's research networks;   
2.  OpenAIRE: Provides a browser for all research results and data collected in projects funded by the European Commission;
3. re3data.org: A website dedicated to data repository searches. You can enter your research topic subject on the browser, then apply appropriate filters (options on the left) or browse results by country;
4. FAIRsharing: Helps you find data repositories, preservation policies, and standards to make your data FAIR;
5. Data.europa.eu : The Official portal for European data, classified by theme;
6. Google* Recently developed a browser to search for existing datasets. You can also use the general search engine with some Boolean queries such as: [research topic] + (database OR registry OR dataset OR statistics).

* Extra caution should be exercised when using commercial solutions.