Resource guide

OneDrive/SharePoint are collaboration platforms, not archival or compliance-oriented research storage. As a rule of thumb, OneDrive/SharePoint are fine for research data when the research data are office files, for instance transcripts, observational notes, spreadsheets etc.

Links: https://start.uib.no or https://portal.office.com

UiBhjelp: OneDrive & Teams

Create a Team via: https://forms.office.com/e/tUHpxhPrwJ (SharePoint sites are always created through Team creation)

Active research data storage: An important distinction is that OneDrive storage follows the user account's lifecycle (deleted once the user leaves UiB), whereas SharePoint/Teams is independent of a user. In practice, SharePoint is therefore preferred over one's personal OneDrive for research data. No retention policies are set on SharePoint areas, but sites assigned to Teams inactive for over 12 months are deleted.

Sensitive data: Office files can be labelled and encrypted with built-in Purview / Microsoft Information Protection. For other file types, the encryption can be performed with other software, see e.g. KI 2927 in UiBhjelp.

Project area is a dedicated storage space assigned to a single research group. To apply for a Project area, submit a ticket via UiBhjelp.

Billy is a service for affordable long-term data storage. Because of a long access time to copy/open files, it is not practical to process data directly from Billy.

Description (in UiBhjelp).

Space limit/cost: As for 2026, storage space on Billy is sold in pieces of 10TB (instead of the previous 30TB).

Norwegian Research and Education Cloud provides infrastructure for instant creation of standardized servers and storage. Additionally, it offers a possibility to integrate private hardware into NREC ecosystem, allowing researchers in computationally demanding domains to benefit from professional IT support.

Main website: https://nrec.no

User documentation: https://docs.nrec.no

Cost: Applications are considered case-by-case; small projects typically get access to requested resources for free.
One of the ways to access the free NREC resources is through HubroHub – a JupyterHub service for all employees and students at UiB: https://hubrohub.uib.no/.

Access for partners external to UiB: External collaborators get a UiB guest account, unless they are members of one of the other organizations already using NREC. However, if the external user only needs access to an instance running in NREC, no guest account is required.

Secure Access to Research Data and E-infrastructure is UiB’s solution for secure processing and storage of sensitive data in research.

Links: https://www.uib.no/en/safe, UiBhjelp

Space limit/cost: Storage up to 1TB is free, above follows the UiB ITA general pricing policy. At the moment, there is no additional charge for extra CPU or GPU resources.

Sigma2 provides the national e-infrastructure for computational science in Norway, while NRIS – Norwegian Research Infrastructure Services – is a collaboration of BOTT universities working with Sigma2 on operating the national services.

Main website: https://www.sigma2.no
Overview of available infrastructure (on Sigma2.no).
NIRD solutions: overview
HPC systems: get access here

Long-term storage: See NIRD Research Data Archive

Application deadlines: Jan & Jun, see also the website. Smaller allocations can be granted in between allocation periods.

Cost: Researchers from UiB estimate the cost according to category A in Sigma2’s User contribution model.

NIRD backup: The need for backup needs to be explicitly specified in the application.

NIRD version control: No automatic version control, but there are snapshots of the data on NIRD kept for 6 weeks; read more on Sigma2.no.

Sensitive data: See NORTRE for more information.

Access for students: Account external to UiB, see https://www.sigma2.no/apply-e-infrastructure-resources#Whocanapply . Like anyone else, students can only get access if they are members of a research project or taking a course running on the infrastructure.

Norwegian Trusted Research Environments is a collaboration between three main institutional research infrastructures for sensitive data in Norway, SAFE at UiB, HUNT Cloud at NTNU and TSD at UiO. NORTRE offers high-performance computing (supercomputer Colossus) and large storage resources in collaboration with Sigma2.

Project website: https://www.nortre.no
Access through Sigma2: https://www.sigma2.no/service/sensitive-data-services
Read more about Colossus: link

European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking supports the development and maintenance of European super- and quantum computing services and data infrastructure. In addition to classic HPC services, it offers AI-optimized modules and extensive user support through its AI Factories.

Main website and open calls.
Overview of available supercomputers.

Application deadlines: Check open calls; PI must be affiliated with a EuroHPC JU country (e.g. Norway).

Space limit/cost: Free for researchers affiliated with EuroHPC member countries.The limits on available resources depend on the call and chosen system.
NB! LUMI supercomputer can be accessed either through Sigma2/NRIS or EuroHPC, but the latter offers significantly more resources.

The European Open Science Cloud EU Node is best understood as a compute, collaboration, and open science platform. It serves for cross-institutional collaboration with European partners and provides cloud computing resources for projects that exceed local capacity.

Main website: https://open-science-cloud.ec.europa.eu
Login for UiB members: search for Feide

Upon first login, researchers affiliated in Europe automatically receive a personal credit allocation. Credits function as an internal currency used to reserve and deploy available services. It is possible to request additional credits, and EC-funded research projects can apply for Credit Grants.

Space limit/cost: Access to EOSC services is free of charge for researchers in Europe but limited by the number of available credits, see the access policy for more information.
The File Sync & Share service provides a fixed quota of 50GB/user and cannot be extended by spending additional credits. Groups receive separate group quota of credits which can be used to reserve compute services, but no additional storage is included. Collaboration on files happens through sharing folders from individual accounts with the group, but each member's 50GB quota applies independently.

Version control: The File Sync & Share service is provided by OwnCloud and follows OwnCloud’s versioning routines (more details here).