Dr Steve Quenette1, Dr J Max Wilkinson2
1Monash University, Clayton, Australia, 2Australian Research Data Commons
Who should attend: This workshop seeks to validate, extend and share our findings on the operational characteristics of macro scale research data infrastructures. As such it will most benefit senior responsible and/or operational individuals from research active institutions and facilities. We invite active participation from those in senior advisory and planning roles in data infrastructure, data service owners, individuals from Research Offices and information management.
The types of people who will benefit from attending the workshop: Institutional service managers supporting research data lifecycles. Individuals responsible for institutional data governance and policy development.
Skills or knowledge attendees should have: Experience in operational research data management and infrastructure provision at scale.
Do attendees need to bring their own equipment or install any special software to participate in the workshop: No
Pre workshop preparation: The workshop conveners will be undertaking active engagement in the sector to prepare the workshop. We expect many of those stakeholders to attend the workshop and actively contribute to discussions.
Morning: Expanding the Macro View
The Macro View of data burden developed by the RDCC, provides a first ever estimate for the scale of research data managed at Australian universities. Prior to the workshop, this first perspective on data at scale will be improved by expanding the small group of research intensive institutions to other Universities and sector stakeholders (MRIs, NCRIS facilities, CSIRO etc).
The objectives of the morning session are to:
- Review accuracy of estimates for Australia’s retained research data;
- Characterise macro level trends in the types of data being retained; and
- Define learnings and identify limitations for the macro view.
Afternoon: From LifeCycles to Functions and Decision Points
Data are treated differently as they pass through their own particular lifecycle. Efficient management of those data requires pragmatic decisions, which carry increasingly significant operational consequences. As the data management scale increases so these decisions need to become easier.
The ARDC Data Retention Project found that one familiar decision point, assigning a DOI, was a challenge for many university systems, processes and policies. Foundational information on retained data was often distributed across internal operational units.
During the workshop the relationship between three core functions will be explored along with the decision points that transition data between them:
- Meeting organisational obligations and operational requirements
- Publishing research data; and
- Curating research data assets.
Workshop participants will assist develop a Macro View of these functions by identifying their role within them and useful decision points providing those functions drawn from their particular institutional experiences, such as determining data is sensitive.
The workshop goal is to propose a future design for an RDMP-2.0, which together with the Macro View will inform an approach to data infrastructure management useful to both local systems and national coherence.