Monash University releases Research Data Management Strategy 2012-2015

Posted: April 25th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Research Data | Tags: , | Comments Off on Monash University releases Research Data Management Strategy 2012-2015

Monash University in Australia has released a strategy for managing research data. The strategy was jointly developed by the University Library, the Monash e-Research Centre and the university’s enterprise IT group, eSolutions.

Monash University is active in RDM already for many years – milestones since 2006 include:

  •  the establishment of governance structures that provide leadership and coordination
  • development and approval of a research data management policy and associated procedures
  • the creation of ongoing and project-based advisory and technical roles dedicated to research data management, and inclusion of data management responsibilities in a wide range of other roles (e.g. subject librarians)
  • active programs of professional development that have increased the knowledge and skills of researchers (including higher degree by research students) and professional staff
  • establishment of a multi-petabyte research data store, available to all Monash researchers
  • deployment and development of a range of discipline-specific and versatile solutions for the management of research data and associated metadata and documentation.

The Research Data Management Strategy outlines a number of goals and initiatives, which will be prioritised and scoped in consultation with internal and external stakeholders. Many smaller initiatives are already underway, while larger and more complex areas of work would require more detailed plans and costings.

Cathrine Harboe-Ree (University Library) emphasised the availability of the strategy to other organisations, which could be interested and use it as a basis for their own strategies.

“We are committed to improving research data management at our own institution, and also across the research sector as a whole. Most research is now undertaken collaboratively, and Australia is leading the world in terms of developing a national approach through the Australian National Data Service. We hope that the public release of the Monash University strategy under an open licence will prompt other organisations to develop holistic and sustainable institutional approaches to research data management. We also look forward to working with other organisations to address collaboratively many of the broader national and international issues such as research data skills development and emerging requirements for measuring the social and economic value of data re-use.”

 

Graphic by Gerd Altmann / www.pixelio.de

Comments are closed.