Managing active research in
the University of Edinburgh
Robin Rice
University of Edinburgh
(@sparrowbarley)
Jisc-CNI conference
Oxford, 6 July 2016

Elements of the presentation
• Funded & unfunded research, PGR
students, collaborators
• Managing & support for …
– research grants
– research outputs
– research data
• Simplified research lifecycle
– (before – during – after)
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New Research Management and
Administration System (grants)
Worktribe - Empowering and supporting research administrators
and investigators from idea through costing, approvals, award, post-
award management and closure.
• A recent requirements and procurement project focused on
delivery of a new 'Worktribe Research Management' system to
support improved pre-award and post-award business processes
across the University.
– 3 pilot schools / institutes November 2015
– Go-live across university April 2016
• The new 'Worktribe Research Management' system is integrated
with the existing Finance, HR and PURE systems.
• https://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/programme/rmas
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Managing research outputs:
guidance for authors; OJS
1. Make your work Open Access 5. Acknowledge your funder
2. Use your name consistently 6. Statement on research data
3. Use an ORCID identifier 7. Cite the DOI and OA links
4. Institutional affiliation 8. Claim your digital space
‘Ensure your research reaches the widest possible global audience, is eligible
for submission in research assessment exercises, and fulfils funder
requirements.’
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Type, format volume of data, chosen software
for long-term access, existing data, file naming,
structure, versioning, quality assurance process.
Information needed for the
data to be read and
interpreted in future,
metadata standards,
methodology, definition of
variables, format & file type
of data.
Restrict access to data, risks
to data security, appropriate
methods to transfer / share
data, encryption.
Secure & sufficient storage for active
data, regular backups, disaster recovery
Make data publicly
available (where possible)
at the end of a project,
license data, any
restrictions on sharing,
access controls?
Select data to keep,
decide how long data
will be kept, in which
repository, costs
involved in long-term
storage?
Day-to-daymanagementofdata
Managing Research Data
(from researcher training)
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Who manages active data?
• RDM Policy (2011) sets out roles and
responsibilities for researchers & the
institution
– Researchers are responsible for their work
– Enabling role of institution
• Services, including stewardship
• Monitoring compliance
• Principal Investigators
• Research Institutes & Schools 6

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From RDM programme to
Research Data Service…
• RDM programme a result of both
bottom-up (‘action group’) activity and
top-down policy implementation
• Services had various providers and their
purpose and names were confusing
• New single service has
SO & SOM with Virtual Team
across Information Services
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Before -
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After (Simplified data lifecycle)
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Tools & support for working with data
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Finding and analysing data
• What is Data Library & Consultancy?
• The Data Library & Consultancy team assists
researchers to discover and use datasets for
analysis, learning and teaching.
• Data librarians are available to help you find
answers to data-related questions.
• Tools include a data catalogue and the Survey
Documentation and Analysis online data
browser
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Storing data
• What is DataStore?
• DataStore is file storage for active research
data, and is available to all research staff and
postgraduate research students (PGRs).
• DataStore provides a free individual allocation
for each researcher, as well as shared group
spaces. Additional capacity of virtually any size
is available.
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Transferring data
• What is DataSync?
• DataSync is a tool to synchronise and share
research data with collaborators. It has an app
to synchronise data to computers and mobile
devices, and a web interface to allow access to
data from any web browser.
• Data can be shared with anyone who has an
email address, via the web interface.
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Versioning software
• What is Subversion?
• Subversion is a version control tool which allows users
to store code. It is also available as an extension called
SourcEd which provides a web based collaboration
tool integrated with your repository.
• When documents stored in a Subversion repository
are updated the old versions are kept so you can
revert if necessary. The service also allows multiple
people to collaborate on documents.
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Data management support
One-to-one support is available on the following
areas of RDM:
• Writing and reviewing DMPs;
• Creating SOPs for metadata collection and
publication;
• Creating SOPs for good data management
practice;
• Choosing a data repository and preparing data
for deposit and publication
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Training - Online
• MANTRA: MANTRA is a free, non-credit, self-
paced course designed for postgraduate
students and early career researchers which
provides guidelines for good practice in
research data management
• Research Data Management and Sharing
MOOC: This free five-week course - created by
the Universities of Edinburgh and North
Carolina - is designed to reach learners across
disciplines and continents. 19

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MANTRA sessions by country
2012-2016
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Sessions by city: January – June 2016
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www.coursera.org/learn/data-management #RDMSmooc
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MOOC’s contents
• Understanding Research Data
• Data Management Planning
• Working with Data
• Sharing Data
• Archiving Data
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Training workshops
• Creating a data management plan for your
grant application
• Managing your research data: why is it
important and what should you do?
• Working with personal & sensitive research
data
• Good practice in research data management
• Handling data using SPSS
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RDM training take-up, 2014-2016
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Current pilots
• ResearchSpace ELN
• Secure data service
• Also looking at interoperability with
cloud solutions such as
– Open Science Framework
– European Open Science Cloud
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THANK YOU
To follow developments, subscribe to our Edinburgh Data Blog
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/datablog
R.Rice@ed.ac.uk
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