Formalising data management plans for large scale multi-disciplinary projects

1. Formalising data management plans for large scale multi-disciplinary projects Louise Corti and Susan Cadogan UK Data Archive IASSIST 2007

2. Overview • Introduction • Objectives of large scale Research Programme • Data Management Policy • Operating the Policy (getting tough) • Role of the UKDA • Outputs • Challenges

3. Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU) The Research Programme is a large-scale unprecedented interdisciplinary collaboration between: • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) • National Environment Research Council (NERC) The programme has a budget of £24 million, with additional funding provided by government agencies: • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) • Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department

4. Programme Objectives • Rural areas in the UK are experiencing considerable change • The Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU) aims to advance understanding of the challenges they face • Interdisciplinary research is being funded 2004-2009 in order to inform future policy and practice with choices on how to manage the countryside and rural economies • The Rural Economy and Land Use Programme enables researchers to work together to investigate the social, economic, environmental and technological challenges faced by rural areas • The Programme aims to encourage social and economic vitality of rural areas and promote the protection and conservation of the rural environment

5. Six societal challenges • public trust in food chains • tackling animal and plant disease • sustainable farming in the New Europe • robust rural economics • land management techniques to deal with climate change and invasive species • managing land and water use for sustainable water catchments

6. Themes and data • The Integration of Land and Water Use • The Environmental Basis of Rural Development • Sustainable Food Chains • Economic and Social Interactions with the Rural Environment • Programme is both using and creating a variety of data sources • disparate types of data – social and environmental and biological data • estimate some 80 datasets from Call 1 (8 major research projects and smaller scoping studies)

7. RELU data types • Social data – people based • Micro (survey) • Household or individual level attributes, Behaviour, attitudes and options • Business/company • Farm level data • Aggregated • UK Census e.g. small area statistics, Retail statistics, Health indicators • GIS/spatial data geographically referenced environmental databases • Ordnance survey, Road networks, Settlement

8. RELU data types (cont.) • water quality, land fill, air quality, emission levels • soil data, eg mineral composition • ecological data, animal and bird distributions • agricultural census • climate and meteorological data • river flow data • biochemical data relating to foods/habitats

9. RELU Data Management Policy • Early on data management formally recognised by funders as critical • builds on existing ESRC and NERC mandatory data policies • aims to enhance the capabilities for interdisciplinarityand thus improves the ability of the research community to: • apply learning from one field to another • combine different methodological approaches and sources of information • cross-fertilise ideas and concepts • understand scientific, technological and environmental problems in their social and economic contexts www.relu.ac.uk/about/data.htm

10. Data Management Policy principles • publicly funded research data are a valuable, long term resource • to ensure maximum research exploitation data must be managed effectively from day-1 • researchers must collect data in such a way as to ensure longer term sharing • RELU funds will support data management through the life of the project • data must be made available by researchers for archiving: Research Council supported data centres provide long-term, post-project data management

11. RELU Data Support Service • set up to help oversee and implement the Programme's Data Management Policy and Data Management Plan • provides a support service for RELU researchers and staff to gain information and guidance on issues surrounding longer-term data sharing and preservation • joint support service run by: • ESRC/JISC supported UK Data Archive at Essex (UKDA) • The NERC-supported Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) • funded initially for one year supporting one FTE and outreach activities: 1 Jan 05 – 31 Dec 05. Continuation to March 2008

13. Outputs • Getting wording of DM Plan and guidance right • Web site to support completing application • Web site to support completing plan once funded • Workshops for new Principal Investigators • Workshops for new researchers • Best Practice Guide on Data Management • Third party data information – costs, barriers, licensing • Database of all data being created • Acquire data, process and disseminate data • Advice on data integration

14. Data Management Plan • proforma to complete (Section 3 of the ProjectCommunication and Data Management Plan) • highlighting data management and custody issues at an early stage • providing a basis for quality assurance within the Programme • providing a basis from which award holders and the Programme Director can report and monitor project and overall RELU Programme progress

15. Information required from plan • requirements for access to existing datasets • details of new and derived datasets to be produced • quality assurance of data • formats and standards • data description and documentation • ethical, legal issues and IPR resolution • data back-up procedures, security • archiving data (for Research Council data archives) • data management representative RELU-DSS helps support these areas

16. RELU awards database

17. Guidance on Data Management • Produced glossy brochure • What is Data Management? Data, metadata etc. • Data Management strategies • What is Digital Preservation? • Making Back-ups • Format Translation and Choice of Formats • Security

18. Our experience • This degree of formalisation is new to social science data in the UK • UKDA operate a Datasets Policy for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) but with less leverage upfront • DMP and DM support ensures potential sharing issues to be clarified early on and support mid and end of project • Greater awareness of data, metadata documentation, and data sharing….albeit grudgingly • Integration of data is key for this programme

19. Other disciplines (UK) Policies • Natural Environmental Research Council (6% of each Programme) • Arts and Humanities Research Council ICT review (AHDS History) • Biological Sciences Research Council NEW! • Medical Research Council STILL WAITING! • We hope to see DMPs applied to all major investment data-rich ESRC programmes

20. Contacts • Louise Corti corti@essex.ac.uk • Susan Cadogan susan@essex.ac.uk Acquisitions team UK Data Archive University of Essex Colchester Essex www.esds.ac.uk