Managing research data at scale: Addressing the growing data challenge together

Modern institutions face the challenge of uncontrolled expansion and the indefinite retention of uncurated(-able) digital content associated with research activities.

Underlying this challenge are two problems:

1) there is low institutional maturity in the ability to assess this digital corpus that prevents institutions and researchers extracting and acting on insights;

2) there is a limited understanding of institutional obligations and best practices around the selection of research content for appropriate disposal and retention.

This formed the basis of two ARDC-funded, institutional underpinnings extension projects that commenced in March 2023 (Business Intelligence & Reporting and Retention & Disposal). Through a series of sector-wide consultation activities, we:

1. Produced a taxonomy that can be applied to digital research content that aids reporting and decision making

2. Developed a minimum research data reporting format and trialled its ability to be reported

3. Unravelled the “data lifecycle” diagram and identified key operational opportunities for metadata enrichment and retention or disposal actions

4. Synthesised best practices at the identified opportunities for compliant and efficient data retention or disposal actions

5. Highlighted sector alignment as a key driver for institutional adoption of project outputs. In this presentation, the project outputs will be summarised.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
David Jung is a project manager at UNSW and has provided technical, policy, and strategic advice on research data management to researchers and administrators alike in a number of previous roles. He recently led two ARDC-funded institutional underpinnings extension projects that aimed to develop a taxonomy for institutional research data reporting and aligned best practice guidelines for safe and effective research data retention and disposal.

Ai-Lin Soo has a background in Commerce, with a focus on sustainability and BioMedical Science and has been with the Monash eResearch Centre (www.monash.edu/researchinfrastructure/eresearch). Ai-Lin is involved in a number of cross cutting initiatives within the Centre, applying her project management skills to a diverse range of projects from marketing and communications to research data management. Ai-Lin is also heavily involved in the Research Data Culture Conversation (www.researchdataculture.org) and manages the Monash University response to the ARDC Data Retention and Institutional Underpinnings programmes.

For more information about eResearch NZ / eRangahau Aotearoa, visit:
https://eresearchnz.co.nz/