Order of St. Olav to Bjørn Henrichsen
The County Governor gives the Order
H.M. the King has awarded the The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, Knight of First Class to Director Bjørn Henrichsen for his remarkable accomplishments on behalf of the father country and humanity.
H.M. the King pointed in his justification at Henrichsen’s effort regarding the development of Norwegian Social Sciences Data Services (NSD) where he has been the head since 1975, with an interim as assistant university director at University of Bergen from 1981 – 83. Professor Stein Rokkan and Henrichsen held a shared leadership until Rokkan passed away in 1979.
Bjørn Henrichsen
The Order was, on behalf of H.M. the King, given away by the County Governor Svein Alsaker. In his speech the County Governor said that Henrichsen has been a pioneer and a remarkable institution builder and research infrastructures builder, and has contributed to make Norway a far more significant actor within its field than the size of the country should indicate. NSD is today one of the world largest research data archives and a provider of data and services in the research sector.
Mr. Henrichsen has been the Executive Director of NSD for more than 30 years with a short absence in 1981-1983 to serve as Deputy Director General of the University of Bergen. He has considerable experience of work at international level; as, among other positions, the former President of the Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA), as a board member, and earlier as Vice-President, of the International Federation of Data Organisations (IFDO), as Vice-President of IASSIST (1986-93), as a member of the EU-Study Panel on Large Scale Facilities for the Social Sciences (1994-95), as an adviser to the European Science Foundation Standing Committee for the Social Sciences (SCSS), as a member of European Social Survey Central Coordination Team, as a member of the Swedish Database InfraStructure Committee (DISC), and as a member of the Danish Expert Committee for Research Infrastructures. Henrichsen is a Norwegian delegate to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures - ESFRI, and former Chair of its Roadmap Working Group for the Social Sciences and Humanities.
He also holds numerous national positions organized by the Research Council of Norway and several Ministries. Mr. Henrichsen has for almost 20 years been the Chair of the Board of The Norwegian Research Network (UNINETT), which connect Norwegian education and research institutions to the international Research Network.
In his acceptance speech Mr. Bjørn Henrichsen pointed to the continuing support from NSD's owner (formerly The Research Council of Norway, presently Ministry of Education and Research) and the effort of a highly competent staff as the basis for the development and status of NSD.
Almost 100 colleges and collaborators were present at the event at NSD.