JISC

This project will allow researchers in multiple academic, governmental and voluntary-sector institutions to share their data. Data will be held securely in a sustainable subject repository which preserves and disseminates multiple datasets as part of the FreshwaterLife.org information portal. Data creators will be able to manage access rights to their content, from Open Access to sharing with trusted colleagues. The project is a collaboration between King’s College London’s Centre for e-Research (CeRch) and the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA), a membership organisation promoting freshwater science since 1929.

Aims and objectives

• To understand the data management needs of a dispersed research community, including the contributions of individual researchers who are very important in freshwater biology.
• To gather information on the main data management issues faced by this diverse and dispersed community.
• To explore a framework for embedding copyright and intellectual property rights into data management and exchange.
• To pilot a data management infrastructure that integrates with individual researchers’ practices and facilitates cooperation and data sharing between individuals and across sectors.
• To report on our experiences for the benefit of the research community as a whole.

Project methodology

Mark Hedges will act as Project Director, overseeing the project as a whole in the context of wider institutional, technical and JISC-related issues. Stephen Grace will act as Project Manager, overseeing the day-to-day activity of the project across all workpackages, liaising with primary points of contact with project partners, and managing the work within CeRch.
Kearon McNicol will be the Site manager at the FBA, coordinating activities at the FBA and liaising with the Project manager at CeRch.
There will be monthly meetings, at least by Skype, to track progress.

Anticipated outputs and outcomes

• A pilot Fedora repository at FBA able to ingest content deposited by users in multiple locations.
• Rights framework.

Technology / Standards used

• Fedora Commons 3.0
• DAF, DRAMBORA