Engaging and supporting the research community in Research Data Management

Dr Kwun Lun Cho¹, Dr Adrian W. Chew¹

¹University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Institutional RDM initiatives are broadly organised around three key strands: Policies, Tools and People. Firstly, a framework of policies, and procedures to detail both the researcher and the institutions obligations in response to government legislation and internal risk profiles. These are supported through a series of investments in storage infrastructure, complementary tools and management systems to enable compliance. However, the key and often most difficult component in the triumvirate for successful RDM implementation has been a strategy to engage the research community to facilitate and support ongoing culture change and adopt RDM best practice.

RDM engagement and support has generally relied largely on providing RDM training, usually done at a single point in time (e.g., at the start of an HDR program or new staff onboarding). It is, however, questionable whether such one-shot training provision is truly  effective in support the research community to enact RDM best practices at a point that is relevant to them (e.g., using university-supported data platforms, and applying appropriate retention periods to their data).

This session aims to allow eResearch training and support leads to share how their institutions have been engaging and supporting their researchers (e.g. data champions,  info sessions/workshops, data consultations, direct involvement in research ethics processes etc.). This would then allow participants to learn from each other, and sketch out a path whereby institutions can best engage and support researchers in enacting RDM best practices throughout their research project lifecycle (perhaps using a just-in-time approach).

Biography:

(Jacky) Kwun Lun, Cho is a program manager (Research Infrastructure) at the University of New South Wales. Prior to this role, he was a researcher in physical chemistry. In his current role, he is responsible for a program that includes data storage, data management, and community engagement activities.