The Tryggve project aims to strengthen Nordic biomedical research by facilitating the use of sensitive data in cross-border projects. It works on developing secure computing environments, improving interoperability between Nordic systems, establishing legal guidelines, implementing use cases, and communicating opportunities to Nordic research communities. The project is led by NeIC in collaboration with ELIXIR nodes in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden and builds on existing technical capacities in each country.

1. Service development for
sensitive research data
The Nordic Tryggve project
Antti Pursula, Project Manager
wiki.neic.no/Tryggve

2. Robust Nordic Infrastructure
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3. Tryggve – collaboration for sensitive biomedical data
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• Project aims to strengthen Nordic biomedical research by
facilitating use of sensitive data in cross-border projects
• Collaborators and funders are NeIC and ELIXIR Nodes in Denmark,
Finland, Norway and Sweden
• Project will build on strong existing capacities and resources in
Nordic countries

4. Motivation and Goals
• Motivation: Enable and strengthen biomedical research
• Main goals:
• Provide secure analysis environment for sensitive research data
• Enable cross-border sharing of sensitive data among collaborators
• Empower Nordic research projects
• Transfer knowledge between developers and service providers
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5. Tryggve works on 6 themes
1. Technical development
2. Interoperability of systems
3. Process development
4. Legal framework
5. Use cases
6. Communication and outreach
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6. 1. Technical development
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7. 1. Technical development
• Purpose: Provide secure computing environment for analysis of
sensitive data.
• “Building blocks”
– TSD 2.0 service at USIT, Norway
– Mosler service at BILS, Sweden
– ePouta IaaS at CSC, Finland
– Computerome at DTU, Denmark
• All of the above have been launched for users
• Variety in the systems involved offers flexibility to handle different
user demands
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8. 2. Interoperability of systems
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9. 2. Interoperability of systems
• Purpose: Improve joint use of Nordic secure systems.
• Development supporting interoperability:
– Data transfer service
– Portable software installations
– Shared computing resources
– Investigate common authentication and authorization mechanisms
• Existing tools will be utilized to support interoperability, including:
– Tool and Resource Registry at ELIXIR Denmark
– REMS authorization management system at ELIXIR Finland
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10. • Secure file transfer based
on secure FTP
• No need to store
temporary copies on
user’s local computer
• Can be used for moving
data between Tryggve
systems, or to interface
with external repositories
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2. Interoperability:
Data transfer

11. [www.docker.com]
2. Interoperability: Portable software installations
• Users must be able to bring own software pipelines in the secure
systems, while making sure that exactly same workflow is
executed at different environments
• Service providers have limited resources for installing individual
pipelines
• Proposed solution is to provide portable software installations
• Docker Containers within secure environments are being tested
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12. 2. Interoperability: Shared computing resources
• Aim: Enable use of secure IaaS resources across Nordics.
• Case: Provide computing resources from ePouta (Finland) for
Mosler service (Sweden)
• Mosler offers PaaS environment for processing sensitive data, and
ePouta offers IaaS resources
– Connect systems with dedicated network
– ePouta provides secure private virtual cluster for Mosler to utilize
• Proof-of-concept for future use cases
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13. 3. Process development
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14. 3. Process development
• Purpose: Improve accessibility of services and share best-practices
in service operations
• Tasks supporting development of processes:
– sharing knowledge on technologies and software components
– optimizing account delivery process (2-factor authentication)
– sharing experiences in IT security and security reviews
– improving (or harmonizing) customer contract processes
– possibilities for resource sharing (funding) across countries
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15. 4. Legal environment
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16. 4. Legal environment
• Purpose: Assess legal framework relevant for use of sensitive data
in research, and provide guidelines to fulfill legal requirements
for trans-Nordic studies.
• Activities include:
– assessing relevant legislation in Nordic and EU level
– analysing legal requirements and conditions in some of the use cases
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5. Use cases

18. 5. Use cases
• Purpose: Implement and support concrete use cases to facilitate
great research and to connect project to actual user demands.
• Open call for Nordic use cases.
• Two use cases currently active (June 2015):
– Trans-Nordic Gene-Environment Analyses
– Improved Sharing and Analysis Environments for Big Biobank Data
• (simple) process to propose use cases documented at
wiki.neic.no/wiki/Tryggve#Use_cases
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19. 5. Use Case proposal form available on web site
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More information at https://wiki.neic.no/Tryggve#Use_cases

20. 6. Communication and Outreach
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21. 6. Communication and Outreach
• Purpose: Inform Nordic communities about the opportunities
provided by Tryggve developments
• Means:
– Presentations at events
– Monthly newsletter
– Twitter and Slideshare
– Project web page at NeIC wiki
– Communication with the Reference group
– Articles, flyers and web news items
• Information collected in web
https://wiki.neic.no/Tryggve
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22. Thank you
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Antti Pursula
Project Manager
CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd
antti.pursula@csc.fi
Twitter: @AnttiPursula
wiki.neic.no/Tryggve