JISC

The UK Data Archive will work closely with selected ESRC research centres and programmes to help develop and implement effective data management planning in the research life cycle and increase individual and institutional data managing and sharing capacity by providing best practice guidance, support and training.

After assessing existing data management practices and auditing data assets, data management plans will be developed alongside protocols to implement and monitor them and overall data management strategies. This will help develop better data management practices and procedures in research and increase the potential for long-term use and validity of research data.

Aims and objectives

The project aims to:

• evaluate existing data management practices in current and past ESRC investments 
• develop, implement and test protocols and procedures for implementing and monitoring data management plans within the research cycle for ESRC research centres and programmes 
• understand barriers to data sharing for challenging research domains and data types and develop solutions to overcome them
• identify optimal data management intervention points in the research cycle and the actions needed 
• identify gaps in data management planning skills and knowledge and develop and deliver support and training
• develop a data management cost model for research projects.

Project methodology

The project team will select research centres and programmes in dialogue with ESRC, and based on the stage of research, research domains and re-use potential of resulting data.
Information will be gathered through interviews with key staff members, centre and programme meetings and placements of the project officer within centres. Based on this, purpose-built and practical data management protocols and strategies will be developed together with centres and programmes staff and will be implemented, assessed and evaluated. A costing model will be developed by costing resources required for data management. Expertise gained will be used to develop best practice guidance.

Anticipated outputs and outcomes

• Best practise protocols and procedures for research centres and programmes to implement, assess and monitoring data management plans, with optimal intervention points in the research cycle.
• Understanding of the place and practice of effective data management for more ‘problematic’ research domains and data types.
• Data audits and best practise assessments for collaborating centres.
• Practical purpose-built data management training workshops in centres and programmes.
• Printed and online best practice guidance for research centres and programmes on data management planning and procedures.
• Seminar to share lessons learnt and promote good practice .
• Data management cost model.

Technology / Standards used

Existing tools to be used: 

• Data Audit Framework, DCC 
• Data management planning template, DCC 
• DDI metadata specification