Visit from the DCC

Yesterday we were visited by some representatives from the Digital Curation Centre. Their visit was intended to provide an introduction, guidance and support to data management tools they have developed. The visit covered the Data Audit Framework (DAF), Assessing Institutional Digital Assets (AIDA) and Keeping Research Data Safe 2 (KRDS2). The final hour was devoted to a discussion on where the Data Management Planning for ESRC Research Data Rich Investments project can learn from and contribute to the DCC.

What I took from this meeting was that there are already some very good data management tools in existence. These can be used, refined, and adapted and offered back to the data management community. For example, our remit is to consider data management practices at centre and programme level - effectively looking at cross institutional, multi-research data. This will identify issues that would not exist at departmental level, within institutions, or within single research projects. My sense from this was that there is no generic solution for all scientific and social research.

It was rewarding to meet others in the data management community, and discuss our relationship within that community.

Meetings

Yesterday we had a meeting with the programme manager from JISC and our colleague on the project team from the ESRC. One initial aim was to introduce each other in person, and establish where this project fits into JISC's wider programme on data management and how it contributes to estimating the costing of managing data and promoting a culture of sharing.

It was an interesting and wide-ranging meeting, but the essential points for progress on this project were to sign-off on our project plan and approve our choices for cooperation and the level of involvement with the centres and projects that have expressed an interest in working with us. Following from this, we have already drafted a letter that will be sent by the ESRC to the centres and programme.

The next stage, once that letter has been sent is to set up a meeting with the centres and programmes. As was agreed, we can approach them informally to establish possible dates because the timing is tight. At this meeting we can then work out an memorandum of understanding with the centre or programme and its ESRC case officer, as to the precise nature of cooperation and involvement.

One final, minor but relevant point. Blogging is encouraged as an informal form of monitoring and updating on progress. So, keep watching this space.

Defining the field

This morning we met to narrow the centres and programmes we will work with. The plan was to select one programme and two or three centres with which to work closely and to work to a lesser degrees with the remainder that expressed an interest in cooperation. This may involve interviews with principal investigator and/or a retrospective look at their data management practice. We now have identified some centres and programmes that cover some of the diverse issues in data management such as complex, sensitive, confidential, and commercial data. The next stage is to contact them and begin to sort out a meeting.
Following from this I worked up a spreadsheet to track our progress working with these centres and programme.
Finally for today, I started putting together an interview schedule/questionnaire to discover existing data management practices. It's very much a work in progress, but is based on existing guidance from RELU, Timescapes, Teaching and Learning Resource Programme and our own data management guidance document.