“Where do you begin in this?”

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Raising institutional data management capacity with the DCC

Martin DonnellyDigital Curation CentreUniversity of Edinburgh

Research Data Access and Preservation summitBaltimore, MD – 4 April 2013

- Digital Curation Centre, est. 2004- Three partners: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bath- Primary funder is JISC

Helping to build capacity, capability and skills in data management and curation across the UK’s higher education research community

- DCC Phase 3 Business Plan

www.dcc.ac.uk

1. About the

2. Institutional Engagement programme overview

With funding from HEFCE we’ve…

• Worked intensively with c. 20 HEIs to increase RDM capability– 60 days of effort per HEI drawn from a mix of DCC staff– Deploy DCC and external tools, approaches and best practice

• Variable support based on institutional wants/needs– Institution agrees a schedule of work with the DCC, and each assigns a primary

contact / programme manager

• Lessons and examples will be shared with the community (synthesis report currently in preparation)

www.dcc.ac.uk/community/institutional-engagements

3. Policies and other pressures

2011 was a year of mandates and modernisation…

• RCUK - Common Principles on Research Data Policy• ESRC - requirement for data management plans (and

subsequent analysis of plans received)• EPSRC - Policy Framework on Research Data• HEFCE - Universities Modernisation Fund and DCC

6.9 The Research Councils expect the researchers they fund to deposit published articles or conference proceedings in an open access repository at or around the time of publication. But this practice is unevenly enforced. Therefore, as an immediate step, we have asked the Research Councils to ensure the researchers they fund fulfil the current requirements. Additionally, the Research Councils have now agreed to invest £2 million in the development, by 2013, of a UK ‘Gateway to Research’. In the first instance this will allow ready access to Research Council funded research information and related data but it will be designed so that it can also include research funded by others in due course. The Research Councils will work with their partners and users to ensure information is presented in a readily reusable form, using common formats and open standards.

Government pressure…

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/innovation/docs/i/11-1387-innovation-and-research-strategy-for-growth.pdf

• Public good• Preservation• Discovery• Confidentiality• First use• Citation• Public funding

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UK DATA ARCHIVE

ESRC DMP REQUIREMENTS

• DMP requirement introduced April 2011 • Requirements & guidance developed by UK Data Archive & ESRC• DMP topics:

• assessment of existing data that could be used for the research

• information on new data that will be created• quality assurance of data• back-up and security of data• expected difficulties in data sharing, e.g. ethical or legal

issues• rights (copyright and Intellectual Property rights)• data management responsibilities• preparation of data for sharing and archiving

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UK DATA ARCHIVE

ESRC REVIEW OF DMPs

DMP Review 2012, UK Data Archive, Research Data Management Support Team

• evaluated quality of random sample of 24 DMPs • scored each topic: 1=insufficient; 2=sufficient; 3=excellent

Findings• Average quality score: 17 (9-23)• 7 DMPs (29 %) < 16; 4 DMPs (17 %) < 12• On average good to excellent information on assessing existing

data (average score of 2.4 )• Poorest information:

• copyright and IPR / preparing data for sharing and archiving• Score = 1 (insufficient information provided) most common

for copyright (7 plans), data management responsibilities (5 plans) and data preparation (5 plans)

The odd one out. EPSRC expects all the institutions it funds…a. to develop a roadmap that aligns their

policies and processes with EPSRC’s expectations by 1st May 2012

b. to be fully compliant with these expectations by 1st May 2015

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/standards/researchdata/Pages/expectations.aspx (April 2011)

Quick plug: RDMF, 25 April 2013

- Special event, involving representatives of several RCUK funders - Outcomes will be posted to the DCC website after the event, and

no doubt Tweeted etc

4. Institutional Engagement programme: outcomes and lessons learned

The first programme:a balanced

cohort

University Class Representative group Senior management champion

Aberystwyth (joined by Bangor) Red brick Welsh Confederation Senior PVC

Bath Plate glass

East London Post 1992 Million+

[Senior management team strategic initiative]

Edinburgh Ancient Russell Group Vice Principal Knowledge Management

Glasgow Ancient Russell Group Vice-Principal for Research & Enterprise

Hull Red brick PVC Research

Loughborough Plate glass 1994

London School of Economics Red brick Russell Group

Northampton Post 1992 Million+ Executive Dean for Science & Technology

Open University Distance University Alliance

Oxford Brookes Post 1992 University Alliance PVC Research

Queen Mary University London Red brick Russell Group Vice-Principal for Research and International Affairs

Queen’s University Belfast Red brick Russell Group

Salford Plate glass University Alliance

Sheffield (became White Rose Consortium)

Red brick Russell Group

St Andrews Ancient 1994

Stirling Plate glass Deputy Principal

Surrey Plate glass 1994 Director of Traded Services and Business Support

University of East Anglia Plate glass 1994

University of the Arts London Post 1992

Warwick Plate glass Russell Group

• Input from three perspectives1. Research practice2. Research support 3. Management

• Unfamiliar collaborations and groups• Need for authority, clarity and drive• Focus on desirability, achievability and

sustainability

A cycle of business process redesign

The IE teams

50% have senior

academic champions

Team leaders• Library – 11• Research

office – 8• ITS – 2

Major support• Library – 7• Research office – 2• ITS – 6• Records

management – 2• Repository

management – 1

DCC• Expert

knowledge• Facilitation • Technical

advice

Ownership

Guidance

Developing institutional infrastructure

Steering Group and roadmap

Awareness raising

Analysis of practice

AuditsData clinicsPilot groups

Training

Business plans or

roadmapsCustomised

DMP

Four phases• Initiate change• Diagnose data

practices• Reengineer roles• Introduce

sustainable services

IE activities

Assessing needs

RDM roadmaps

Piloting tools

Policy development

Policy implementation

Quick wins: planning and storage

• Six of the seven research councils require DMPs

• Create tailored / branded versions of DMPonline with– templates / boilerplate

responses– links to local web pages,

training materials, support contacts

• Storage, focusing on – providing sufficient

capacity for research data– tools to enable sharing

with collaborators– advice on the selection of

options (e.g. onsite repository, national services, cloud services)

– matchmaking with relevant projects

Imperatives of guidance and training

Data management

can seem arcane and

overwhelmingly technical

Provide short, simple

guidance that reflects

and promotes

local support

Use tried and tested resources

(e.g. DC101)

Focus on sustainability:• Disciplinary

courses for postgraduate students

• Reskilling of professional support staff

Training features in just over ¼ of the engagements…

IEs as case studies of HEIs

• Universities are generally in the early stages of scoping RDM needs and obtaining benchmarks

• Few have the effective components for RDM services or infrastructure in place

• More concerned with meeting funder expectations rather than a desire for sustainable infrastructure

• There is confusion over the sequence for producing strategies, plans and policies

• The gulf between early adopters and late entrants is widening

Interim observations

The future…• Still more demand than the DCC can meet• Realigning our programme to reflect the

widening spectrum of need, offering – specific curation techniques to enable infrastructure

development– sociotechnical support, from advocacy to skills

reengineering to organisational repositioning• DCC team engaged as expert hands-on

consultants delivering specific tasks• HEIs will be required to demonstrate

commitment to maintain the engagement

Thank You

@mkdDCCwww.dcc.ac.uk

martin.donnelly@ed.ac.uk

Thanks to Graham Pryor (DCC) and Veerle Van den Eynden (UK Data Archive) for use of their slides

- Tell us a story, sir.- Oh, do, sir, a ghoststory.- Where do you begin in this? Stephen asked, opening another book.- Weep no more, Comyn said.- Go on then, Talbot.- And the story, sir?- After, Stephen said. Go on, Talbot. 

Joyce, J. (1922) Ulysses