KRDS/I2S2 Digital Preservation Benefit Analysis Tools (KRDS-I2S2): Final Report

In this project we have tested, reviewed and promoted combined use of the Keeping Research Data Safe (KRDS) Benefits Framework and the Infrastructure for Integration in Structural Sciences (I2S2) Value Chain Analysis tools for assessing the benefits of digital preservation of research data. We have extended their utility to and adoption within the JISC community by providing user review and guidance for the tools and by creating an integrated Toolset [1]. The project has been undertaken in seven work packages that have demonstrated and critiqued the tools, and then created and disseminated the Toolset and accompanying materials such as User Guides and Fact sheets to the wider community.

Value chain analysis has been widely used in industry and in consulting but case studies in the I2S2 project have been its first application to digital preservation or the research data lifecycle [2]. As a method it is particularly well suited to working with a lifecycle approach to costing digital preservation and to broadly defined approaches which consider creation/pre-archive phases and support services as contributing to it. The KRDS/I2S2 Value Chain Analysis has been developed using the extended KRDS activity model [3]. It assigns benefits (derived initially from the KRDS Benefits Framework) to specific activities and weights their impact.