Data management and sharing planning

the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (Relu) experience

Veerle Van den EyndenRelu Data Support Service, UK Data

Archivewww.data-archive.ac.uk/relu

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Overview

• advancing data sharing• Relu data policy• data management planning• data support service activities• data sharing

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Rural Economy and Land Use programme

• interdisciplinary research programme (2004-2011)social, environmental, biological sciences

• cross-research council funding, £24m Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

• 29 large awards - teams of social and natural scientists

• challenges facing rural areas in the UK food issues, flooding, land and water use, agriculture, plant/animal diseases

• 300+ researchers, 40 research disciplines economy, ecology, geography, hydrology, sociology,…

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Relu data management policy

• ESRC & NERC data policies & best practices across research councils

• publicly-funded research data = valuable, long term resource

• data well managed by researchers• project data management plans• Relu funds support data management

• data archived at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) and Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) – RC investments• responsibility of research councils

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Relu data management plans

Data management planning at start of research:• need for access to existing data sources • datasets planned to be produced• planned quality assurance and back-up

procedures for data• plans for management and archiving of

collected data• expected difficulties in making data

available for re-use• measures to overcome such difficulties• who holds copyright and intellectual

property rights of data• data management roles and

responsibilities

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Relu Data Support Service

• funded by research programme• oversee implementation of Relu data policy

• coordinated between UKDA and EIDC

• advise and support for Relu researchers

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Pro-active data support

• review data management plans - advice

• data management information for award holders and grant applicants

• online guidance on RELU-DSS website and UKDA website

• Managing and Sharing Data - a best practice guide for researchers

• training workshops for researchers• project visits

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Key data management issues

• data confidentiality, consent, ethical reviews limiting data sharing potential

• documenting and describing data• copyright over data• timing of data management

e.g. consent for data sharing and documenting data easily ‘left for later’, often meaning ‘left too late’

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Data archiving challenges

• researchers’ attitude towards data sharing varies

• researchers may be unfamiliar with data archiving

• time … time … time • data archiving not necessarily a

priority in research• fear of exploitation / competition

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Addressing challenges

• Relu-DSS meetings with individual project teams to discuss data management for specific research datasets

• topical training workshops – with practical case studies

• detailed, targeted practice guidance• ongoing discussions with researchers• discussions with Research Ethics

Committees

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Relu data sharing

• assist archiving and resource discovery of interdisciplinary data collections - UKDA and EIDC

• Relu knowledge portal - data and research outputs– gateway with online access to data and

outputs– metadata about datasets held at UKDA and

CEH– research outputs harvested from ESRC

Society Today repository

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Relu knowledge portal

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• SN  6172 Implications of a Nutrition-Driven Food Policy for the Countryside, 2005-2008

• SN  6295 Managing Food Chain Risks, 2006-2007 • SN  6171 Warmwater Fish Production as a Niche

Production and Market Diversification Strategy for Organic Arable Farmers, 2005-2007

• SN  6159 Eating Biodiversity: An Investigation of the Links between Quality Food Production and Biodiversity Protection, 2005-2007  

• SN  6008 Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Sustainable Uplands Project: Social Network Analysis, 2004-2006

• SN  6300 Lake District Stakeholders' Perceptions of Personal, Organisational and Environmental Change, 2004-2005

Relu data archived at UKDA

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• focused, funded and pro-active data management and sharing approach for Relu

• support of existing data policies and data sharing infrastructures

• active support from programme directors

• monitor impact of data support efforts on data sharing successes

• example for other research programmes and for research centres?

Conclusion