On 22nd June 2015, Lancaster University hosted a workshop titled “Research Data Management – solutions for your needs”. Originally planned as a smaller meeting to get mid-project feedback for our research data spring project DMAOnline (Data Management Administration Online) we received so much interest that we organised a bigger half-day workshop. We were joined by three other research data spring projects:
- Data Vault (Universities of Edinburgh and Manchester)
- Extending organisational profile document (OPD) to cover RDM (DCC)
- Filling the Digital Preservation Gap (University of York and University of Hull)
We were delighted to welcome 30 attendees from 16 universities plus Joy Davidson from the DCC and Daniela Duca from Jisc. The background of attendees varied from Data Librarians to Developers, Research Support Directors and Archivists which proves how diverse the Research Data Management community is.
All four projects delivered an update on their work. (Slides can be found following this link) This was followed by Breakout sessions where attendees gave feedback on how projects might relate to their institution and their work.
Feedback for our DMAOnline project was positive. There was a general sense that while a lot of effort is made (and rightly so) to support RDM needs of researchers, research support staff and administrators in various roles struggle with getting the right information relating to Data Management Plans (who writes them and needs help?), storage (how can we plan RDM storage needs for the next year?) and compliance monitoring (are datasets being published or are data access statements being written?).
Most colleagues told us they would benefit from a tool that provides support with these demands and liked the clean design of our prototype dashboard. The other research data spring projects were also well received. Detailed posts will be coming soon on each project’s blog. All four projects have benefitted from the feedback we got at the workshop and we are all looking forward to the Jisc’s Research Data Spring sandpit workshop #2 on July 13-14 in London.
About the author: Hardy Schwamm is a Research Data and Repository Manager at the University of Lancaster. He is responsible for providing key support to the university RDM initiative. He also contributes to the RDM Working Group, provides training for researchers in RDM related issues and work on systems that help with RDM.