Research360: Jisc Final Report

The Research360 project aimed to develop human and technical infrastructure to facilitate management of the University of Bath’s research data, in response to increasing external drivers for access to publicly funded research outputs.

The project successfully laid the foundations for an embedded data management service. This included a roadmap setting out how compliance with the EPSRC’s expectations for research data will be achieved. To support the implementation of this Roadmap for EPSRC, a new, high-level Research Data Sustainability Group was established.

The project created two new data management roles within the University and, by delivery of a successful draft Business Case, succeeded in permanently retaining these essential, central roles. Supporting this draft Business Case was a range of guidance, aimed at enabling other institutions to develop similar business cases. This guidance demonstrated how best practice in research data management would benefit the institution, external collaborators and society and also how it would contribute to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014. The project found that responding to researcher demand for training, storage and data publication was a strong motivator of continuing investment in data management activities.

Through an institution-wide survey, the project identified a lack of central policy and co-ordination, and difficulties storing and sharing research active data, as main priorities for the University to address. Research360 therefore developed a draft data management policy for the University and documented the process in a set of guidelines aimed at the wider community. The project redesigned the University’s data management website, as a focal point for researchers searching for help. It also developed specific guidance on the storage of research active data. This guidance was supported by the development of a new training workshop and an online training module, designed to give researchers an introduction to the issues and responsibilities of research data management.

Research360 explored integrating the Sakai virtual research environment with the SWORD2 deposit protocol and reported the experience and recommendations to the Sakai community. The project also worked with EPrints Services to develop a pilot institutional data repository, which will facilitate cataloguing and publishing research data.

Through a broad dissemination programme and close coordination with a range of stakeholders across the University, the Research360 project team established a network of local, national and international advisors, who will prove essential partners as the ongoing data management service continues to develop.

The project concluded that establishment of a pilot data management service requires considerable resource and that many aspects of data management require further investigation. As such, the project strongly recommends that Jisc continue to support programmes and activities in research data management.