USDAS

Internal structure of organization
The data archive is planned to be organized as department within sub-organizational unit of University of Sarajevo. During the SERSCIDA project, and also during the active period of the Initiative for establishment of social sciences data archive, Human Rights Centre was identified as suitable hosting institution.

Governance structure
The archive is led by Head of USDAS who is reporting to the University of Sarajevo. He or she is responsible for management of the archive communication with stakeholders and national, regional and international partners.

Oversight Board has the responsibility of reviewing the work of the data archive. They review annual plans and annual reports and ensure that the work of the data archive is in line with goals and strategies of scientific and other institutions to which they belong. It consists of representatives of Steering Board of University of Sarajevo.

The Centre is the result of an FP7 funded project SERSCIDA – Support for Establishment of National/Regional Social Sciences Data Archives (2012-2014). SERSCIDA was designed as a strategic project for supporting the cooperation and exchange of knowledge between the EU countries associated within the Council of European Social Sciences Data Archives (CESSDA) and the Western Balkan Countries (WBC) in the field of social science data archiving. The project addresses the issues of potential for use of information-communication technologies for the benefit of scientific research and the exchange of knowledge as laid down in the call for proposals.

The primary activities are:

• Preservation and dissemination of quantitative and qualitative data for use in secondary analysis;
• Permanent monitoring of compliance with the international standards in the field of data management and preservation;
• Mediation between the demands of data users and data providers;
• Collaboration with the wider scientific community in the field of collecting and distributing data;
• Open Access Initiative promotion.