Results from Digital Curation Centre's 2015 survey of UK universities and Higher Education Institutions on development of RDM (research data management) support services

1. research data readiness in UK
institutions
Digital Curation Centre’s Survey of UK
Higher Education Institutions
Research Data Services, Where are we now and what's next?
London School of Hygeine & Tropical Medicine, 30 June 2015
Angus Whyte

2. Why what and how?
• National picture of institutional progress
• What are drivers and barriers to that
• Consult on DCC priorities for support
20 questions in online survey sent to PVC-Rs & Research
Office Heads asking for consolidated response
Target 132 Institutions, either in REF2014 >1 UoA
or funded by the EPSRC (70% of those targeted)
• Responses from 60 institutions (45% of target)
of which 47 (78%) EPSRC funded

3. Who took part?
12
7
6
12
23
Russell Group
1994
Million+
Univ.Alliance
Other/ non-aligned
24
24
13
Results analysis will provide
group averages by:
Affiliation
Research income %
Research intensity

4. Respondents have first access to
anonymised results (sent) and briefing
(to come) embargoed to July 31st
So only selected highlights…

5. Drivers
% responses (* 2014 question had no priority ranking, respondents picked from list)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Research support strategy
Research benefits
Protect investment in data
Research integrity/conduct
RC data policies
Govt open data policy
EU Horizon2020 policy
Journal policies
High
Med

6. Skills training & consultancy
Policy and strategy Business planning
Data Mgmt Planning
Managing active dataData cataloguing
Governing access & reuseData preservation
Who has what in place?
% indicating ‘rolling out’ or ‘embedding’ * referred to ‘access & storage systems’ in survey
87% 13%
50%
40%
22%
63%
18%
38%
*

7. Barriers
% responses (* 2014 question had no priority ranking, respondents picked from list)
(1) Question on infrastructure in 2014 combined it with staff resources
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Funding
Knowledge of solutions
Skills/staff resources (1)
Infrastructure
Accepted standards
Management priority
Researchers priority
Cost model uncertainty
Cost recovery uncertainty
Hi
M
Lo
20

8. External Support?
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Support to connect with peers
Briefings & how-to guides
Interact with policy makers
Examples of service approaches
Cost, benefit & risk models
Networking events
Studies data practices &intentions
quite
highly
% indicating likely to need in next 12 months

9. Q. When do you expect your institution to be able to ensure that selected
research data collections remain accessible for the long-term (e.g. 10 years+)?
0 10 20 30 40 50
Currently provide
Next 12 months
>12 months
Don't know
2015
2014

10. Policy commitments are there
%80+ compliance by next May
RDM future looks bright…but
Support still needed
Shared platforms still needed
Are those £ clouds on the horizon?
Conclusion

11. Questions?
SLIDE CREDITS
• Slide 1 and 10: Christian Bardenhorst. 2011. Far Horizons, https://flic.kr/p/bb9NUv CC-BY-NC-2.0
• Slide 2-4: Wessex Archeaology. 2005. Survey Equipment https://flic.kr/p/7xzxG5 CC-BY-NC-SA
• Slide 5: Taylor, T. 2005. Sunset Ripple https://flic.kr/p/2igqj CC-BY
• Slide 6-8 Pei, B.2010 Work in progress https://flic.kr/p/8XTp8v CC-BY-NC-SA
• Slide 9: US Army. 2012. Overcoming Obstacles https://flic.kr/p/bExfoR CC-BY
With the exception of background photos above,
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 UK: Scotland License