Run a data donation study: start here

A data donation study needs two things: a place to run the study, and a flow application that decides which data is taken from a participant's download file. Who provides each, and who can help you, depends on where you work. This page gets you on the right route.

1. A place to run your study

Studies run on Next, an open-source research platform developed and hosted by our partner Eyra. You set up consent, instructions and tasks there, and your donated data arrives there.

Anyone can create a free account and preview a study. Publishing a study requires a licence.

2. A flow application

A small application that runs in the participant's browser. It extracts only the data your study needs and shows it to the participant before they donate. You upload it into your study on Next.

This is the part that takes work. Read what to expect before you plan your timeline.

Which route is yours?

Route A

You work at a Dutch institution

Any university in the Netherlands, or any ODISSEI or CLARIAH member organisation.

Platform: Next, free licence from ODISSEI
Flow application: Our data donation task and standard scripts
Support: D3I

Route B

You work outside the Netherlands

Eyra offers the data donation service on Next to researchers anywhere.

Platform: Next, paid licence from Eyra
Flow application: Eyra's Feldspar template
Support: Eyra

Eyra's service and pricing

Route C

You host everything yourself

All software is open source, so you can run Next on your own servers.

Platform: Your own installation
Flow application: Your choice
Support: None; you maintain it

Source code on GitHub

Outside the Netherlands? Please read this first.

Our scripts, our script selector and our data donation task are open source and you are welcome to use them. We can only offer support to researchers at Dutch institutions, though, because that is what our funding covers. Eyra cannot support them either, because they maintain a different version of the software. If you want supported software, follow route B and start from Eyra's template. See who supports what.

Then, in this order

Understand the parts

Port, Next, Feldspar, data donation task, flow application, script. Six names, explained in one picture.

What is what

Plan your flow application

Three starting points, who maintains each, and why every flow application needs testing before launch.

Your flow application

Set up your study

From an empty project on Next to donated data in six steps, with screenshots.

Step by step