Research Institutions | Preparing and Implementing Policy

The University of Oxford Policy on the Management of Research Data and Records

The policy defines the responsibilities of the researchers and the university, and highlights the importance of partnerships both within the university as well as with actors outside "to implement good practice and meet relevant legislative, research funder and regulatory requirements". The researcher is responsible for managing his/her research data according to university and funder requirements, while the university is responsible for providing researchers with access to services and facilities to meet their requirements, with training, support and advice. In addition, the university is responsible for providing the necessary resources to those operational units charged with the service provision.

A specific sub-committee of the University Research Committee was charged to guide the development of services and update the data management policy of the institution (Oxford policy, point 11). Additionally, a Working Group was appointed within the Committee to 'steer development and ensure senior management remain informed, as well as to ensure the involvement of all academic divisions'. The Group also helped with prioritization of requirements and advice on business models (J. Wilson, op cit. 2014. p. 5).

Source: http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/files/2014/01/Policy_on_the_Management_of_Research_Data_and_Records.pdf

Developing Data Management Services at the University of Oxford

In developing data management services, the relevant departments involved are the Bodleian Libraries, IT Services and researchers from the Department of Zoology. At Oxford, services related to the planning and the bidding phases of the research data lifecycle are overseen by Research Services, services related to data management during the 'live' phase of a project are managed by the IT services, and services related to the post-project data curation, preservation, discovery and access are managed by the Library services (J. Wilson, op. cit.2014. p. 2-3).

Multiple Stakeholder Collaboration for Research Data Services in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, RDNL, an alliance of DANS, 3TU.Datacentrum and SURFSara, provides data services of national scale. The partners include data centers (DANS), high-computing centers of expertise (SURFSara) and the consolidated university service for research data(3TU) of the three major technical Dutch Universities, Delft, Eindhoven and Twente. This collaboration has the possibility for scaling up services by introducing other partners and providing nation-wide services. The RDNL will conclude institution-wide framework agreements for data management and storage services. They may involve division of responsibilities, as well as the establishment and maintenance of technical infrastructure.

Source: http://www.researchdata.nl

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Data managers such as data centres, libraries, archives and memory institutions might bring valuable insights, particularly the case studies (see the links to Further Information on the right-hand side in the data managers section).

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