Research data spring, part of the research at risk co-design challenge area, is a project aiming to find new technical tools, software and service solutions, which will improve researchers’ workflows and the use and management of their data.
Our co-design process has identified research data management as a key priority for continued research and development.
The project model intends to support the creation of innovative partnerships between researchers, librarians, publishers, developers and other stakeholders engaged in the research data lifecycle.
Through the project we hope that the use of practice and standards from other important initiatives in the research data area are pursued, such as DataCite, ORCID, SSI and the ODI certificate.
Gathering and selecting ideas
The first stage of the project gathered ideas and made an attempt at creating new connections openly on the web. Ideas were then developed during the sandpit workshop on 26-27 February 2015 and pitched to an expert panel made up of Rachel Bruce and Martin Hamilton, both Jisc; Kevin Ashley, DCC; William Kilbride, DPC; and Steve Crouch, SSI.
Selected ideas have completed three months of funded development and presented their progress while pitching for another phase of development on 13-14 July 2015.
After the third workshop in early December 2015 seven projects have been selected and now started the latest phase of development. This will end in August 2016. The final showcase will take place in October 2016.
Projects selected in all three workshops can secure funding from £5,000 to £120,000.
Funded projects
The following projects have been successful for our next phase of funding.
Clipper: enhancing time based media for research
Team members/collaborators: City of Glasgow College, The Open University, ReachWill Ltd.
Develop a Data Vault
Team members/collaborators: University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester.
Data management administration (DMA) online
Team members/collaborators: Lancaster University
Interest from: University of Birmingham, University of Lincoln, University of Nottingham, University of St Andrews. Secondary guidance: University of Leicester, DCC.
Extending organisational profile document (OPD) to cover RDM
Team members/collaborators: DCC, University of Southampton.
Filling the digital preservation gap
Team members/collaborators: University of Hull, University of York Artefactual Systems.
Other supporters: Universities of Warwick, Strathclyde, Nottingham, St Andrews, Lancaster, ULCC and Arkivum
Giving researchers credit for their data
Team members/collaborators: University of Oxford, Centre for Environmental Data Archive (CEDA), F1000Research, Ubiquity Press , Geophysical Data Journal (OJS), Wiley.
Streamlining deposit: open journal systems (OJS) to repository plugin
Team members/collaborators: City University London, Ubiquity Press.
Use semantic desktop to capture contextual research data
Team members/collaborators: University of the Arts London, Semiodesk.
Planned activity (2014 - 2016)
What are the exact dates and what would each step involve?
Collaborate online (November 2014 - January 2015)
You can vote and comment or find partners and teams addressing similar issues to initiate collaboration.
Evolve and pitch your ideas (January - February 2015)
We held a workshop where teams met and developed their ideas and received external input at International Digital Curation Centre on 12 February in London.
We invited 44 ideas to seek feedback and partners, work with others and develop their solutions at the sandpit workshop on 26-27 February.
The resulting 27 teams presented a collaborative pitch. The most promising ideas secure up to £22,000 for the first development tranche. Successful teams are listed above as funded projects.
Development (March - June 2015)
Project teams have worked and developed their ideas for an initial period of three months.
Promote progress (July 2015)
We held a second workshop, where the project teams have returned to show their progress and pitch the proposed next steps. The expert jury selected 11 out of the 15 projects that asked for further funding and Jisc offered up to £40,000 in funding for the next 4 months.
Further development (July - November 2015)
The project teams have now been developing their pilots and use cases.
Promote progress (December 2015)
We held a third workshop, where the project teams showed progress and pitched their next steps. The expert jury selected seven out of the eleven projects and we awarded up to £60, 000 in funding for the next six months.
Further development (March- August 2016)
The project teams continue developing their prototypes.
Final showcase (Autumn 2016)
All ideas that have been supported via the research data spring will be invited to showcase.
Further reading
More about the shortlisted projects for phase one funding, a reading list for phase two projects and the seven projects from phase three can all be found on the project blog.
Research data spring showcase
Our showcase on the 20 October 2016 will give an opportunity for the projects involved to demonstrate their prototypes and talk about their case studies.
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