JISC

Establishing a common data standard for managing research information in the UK could save the higher education sector millions of pounds, says a new report commissioned by JISC. 

Research information – administrative information about researchers, projects, outputs and funding that arises from the research process– is currently fragmented and is also often stored in incompatible formats.

It can be spread across different systems, in university departments such as finance and human resources, in institutional repositories or with external bodies such as research funders or the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

The new JISC report found that using a common data model as a basis for exchanging this kind of information will, along with other benefits, significantly reduce the costs associated with information interchange - between 25% and 30% following the adoption of the Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) as the basis for exchanging research information across the sector.

The issue is becoming a priority for universities as they need to have their systems talk to each other internally, collaborate more effectively and submit more and different information to funders.

Institutions spend around £85 million each year submitting and monitoring grant applications to research councils and the RAE 2008 Accountability Review reported a sector cost of £47,335,706 or £1,127 per researcher submitted. 

Neil Jacobs, JISC’s acting programme director for the information environment, says: “By communicating research information more effectively between systems, the process of sharing data becomes more efficient, you reduce duplication of effort and information becomes more accurate. This in turn provides universities with reliable information on which to base their strategic plans, and enables them to report on their research more easily and cost-effectively.”

Over the last two years, the Research Information Management Group has emerged as the primary UK co-ordinating body in this area. It is convened by JISC and has members from organisations representing an extremely wide range of higher education professionals, including senior managers, research managers, directors of information and computing services, librarians, knowledge transfer professionals and technical developers, as well as funders such as HEFCE, the Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust.

The group agreed in January 2010 to promote a UK wide research information management data standard.  Following on from this JISC commissioned a business case which shows compelling evidence for the UK research sector to accept CERIF as the basis for exchanging research information in the UK, but requested that evidence be collated on the costs and benefits of adoption. The results show a compelling case for the adoption of such a standard.

Chris Taylor from HEFCE comments: “HEFCE will support CERIF as a format for institutions to submit information in the Research Excellence Framework. We welcome this report and would encourage institutions to consider its contents carefully. It provides a useful contribution to discussions about how systems in Higher Education may become more interoperable and we welcome in particular the potential savings it outlines."

Read the report

Find out how JISC is supporting people with managing their research information