NIIS works in cooperation with universities and research institutions. We are happy to support the research, academic development and technological innovation with partner universities and research organizations across the globe. Previous studies can be found on the Publications section and on the X-Road Document Library.

Please contact us for information regarding cooperation possibilities.

Cooperation with e-governance and technology faculties

Our collaboration with e-governance and technology faculties provides new research opportunities for university teachers and students. NIIS has provided with topics for research agendas and graduate thesis’. Technology and e-governance students participate in the development of X-Road.

Cooperation with BUSINESS, design AND ART faculties

We are open for cooperation in areas related to digital transformation, service innovation by design and user interface design. We welcome teachers and students to work on real-life cases with our partner organizations and us.

Career opportunities

You are welcome to influence the development of digital society with us! In addition to open positions, internship applications and open applications are welcomed throughout the year. You can find our career page here.

Research Topics

Below are listed some of the research topics that NIIS has identified so far. The list is updated on 27 November 2023.

X-Road and data spaces

More and more new data spaces projects and initiatives are kicking off. X-Road has many characteristics commonly associated with data spaces even if X-Road is not technically aligned with the data spaces technical specifications. What's X-Road's relationship with data spaces and can an X-Road ecosystem be considered a data space?

X-Road sustainability

How can X-Road contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? How can the use and operations of X-Road be made more sustainable? How can X-Road help to make digital services and other information systems more sustainable? How to measure X-Road’s sustainability?

Critical success factors of X-Road implementation

What actions (administrative, legal, tech) are needed to make X-Road implementation on the national level successful, and how can the results be measured? What makes the implementation successful?

Measuring X-Road's effectiveness

What are the KPIs that can be used for comparing/measuring a) X-Road to an alternative solution and b) two X-Road ecosystems with each other. How to calculate direct and indirect savings that X-Road enables?

Trends in digital government data exchange

How data is exchanged now, and what kind of changes can be expected in the future? How will the role of cross-border data exchange develop? How about data spaces - what kind of role will data spaces have?

National Data Exchange solution comparison

Which differences can we find in features of different national data exchange solutions and which features have been considered critical when choosing the product/solution/approach? What has been the approach regarding closed/open-source products?

Trust model – how to implement trust in the X-Road ecosystem?

Trust is a crucial element in the X-Road ecosystem. How should the identity of X-Road member organisations and their Security Servers be managed? Is it enough to have one method or should multiple methods and/or levels be supported? The current trust model is based on PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) technology.

X-Road Community

How was the X-Road Community started? What were the original goals, and how has the community changed through the years?

How do the members like being part of the open-source community? What have been the community's main benefits, and how has the community supported X-Road as an open-source product?

X-Road as an open-source product

What were the reasons for making X-Road open-source? How were the decisions made? What could have been the alternatives? What benefits did open-sourcing X-Road bring?

Bring your own topic

Do you have your X-Road related topic in mind? Propose it to us! We'll help you to define it in more detail if needed.

If you'd like to discover published research papers related to X-Road, please visit The X-Road® Document Library.

Organizations and projects NIIS has cooperated with

  • Aalto University

  • CSC - IT Center for Science

  • Demos Helsinki

  • ESADE Business and Law School

  • European Commission, Joint Research Centre

  • Harvard Kennedy School

  • King’s College London

  • Nordic Open Science Cloud

  • Royal Holloway, University of London

  • Sitra (IHAN)

  • SMIT

  • Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

  • Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech)

  • Tecnalia

  • TOOP

  • University of Buenos Aires

  • University of Helsinki

  • University of Konstanz

  • University of Skövde

  • University of Tartu