Research Data Alliance Future Directions Consultation August, September 2015 Updated: 18 th August 2015

2  RDA community focuses on building social, organizational and technical infrastructure to  reduce barriers to data sharing and exchange  accelerate the development of coordinated global data infrastructure CREATE  ADOPT  USE RDA Working Group Infrastructure Deliverables are:  Focused pieces of adopted code, policy, infrastructure, standards, or best practices that enable data to be shared and exchanged  “Harvestable” efforts for which months of work can eliminate a roadblock for a substantial community  Efforts that have substantive applicability to “chunks” of the data community, but may not apply to everyone  Efforts for which working scientists and researchers can start today while more long-term or far-reaching solutions are appropriately discussed in other venues Research Data Alliance created to Accelerate Development of Research Data Sharing Infrastructure Worldwide Plenary 2 Washington, DC

3 Precipitous Growth RDA Launch / First Plenary March 2013 RDA Second Plenary September 2014 RDA Third Plenary March 2014 RDA Fourth Plenary September 2014 RDA Fifth Plenary March 2015 Amsterdam, Netherlands Washington, DC, USA Dublin, Ireland Gothenburg, Sweden 240 participants First Working Groups and Interest Groups 380 participants from 22 countries First “neutral space” community meeting (Data Citation Summit) First Organizational Partner Meet-up First BOFs 497 Participants from 32 countries First Organizational Assembly 6 co-located events 14 BOF, 12 Working Groups, 22 Interest Groups San Diego, CA, USA 550 Participants from 40 countries 1 st RDA Deliverables presented Organizational Assembly and first OAB / Council meeting 10 co-located events 11 BOF, 14 Working Groups, 36 Interest Groups 383 Participants from 30 countries 2 nd RDA Deliverables presented Organizational Assembly / Council meetings 1 st Adoption Day & Large scale data projects meeting 10 BOF, 10 Working Groups, 20 Interest Groups; 10 joint Sessions; 4 thematic Plenary Sessions

4 The Research Data Alliance Community Today Total RDA Community Members: 3140 from 103 countries

Funders Forum Interest Groups domain coordination, idea generation, maintenance, … Working Groups implementable, impactful outcomes Council organisational vision and strategy Technical Advisory Board socio-technical vision and strategy Secretariat administration and operations Organisational Advisory Board needs, adoption, business advice RDA Foundation

6 Future Directions Context The RDA Council has responsibility for the overarching vision and mission of RDA and its future directions. During Plenary 4 and after 1.5 years of activity, RDA constituent groups held a meeting to assess RDA’s effectiveness and strategic approach. The consensus from the meeting was that this is a useful time to consider future directions for RDA. Subsequently, the RDA Council appointed a small organizing group to frame the next steps [Fran Berman, Ross Wilkinson, Walter Stewart, Sandra Collins]. Key aspect of process is consultation with the RDA members and stakeholders. After consultation, synthesis, and adoption by Council, action takes place across RDA

7 We first identified key questions to address in future direction planning: 1.How do we most effectively harness the power of a volunteer organization? 2.What does RDA look like in 3 years – what’s our shared vision? 3.What are our results and what impacts do we want to have? 4.How do we organize internally? Key Questions for RDA

8  P4 identified the need and use for future directions planning. Organising group established (December 2014)  P5 initial consultation with constituent groups in RDA, first draft presented to RDA membership, and published online (March 2015)  Community survey about priorities and actions developed, conducted and analysed ( May / June 2015)  Second draft prepared for online webinar presentation to membership (August 2015)  Analyse and consolidate feedback and present final draft at P6 to determine consensus (September 2015)  Final draft of Directions Document prepared (September / October 2015), presented to Council for agreement  Report on Directions Document and initial implementation report-out (March 2016 at Plenary 7) Process and timeline

9 Three central themes emerged:  Communications  Engagement  Co-ordination These themes shaped the community survey and are key to this set of webinars. Out of the Initial Consultation CoordinationCommunication Engagement

10  296 responses ~10% response rate  Most common forms of involvement:  staying informed (88%)  participating in plenaries (57%)  Participated in communication (48%)  Contributed to the WG/IG work (39%)  Why involved:  75% say they participate because they believe in RDA vision and goals  58% say their RDA activities are closely aligned with their work  27% say that participating in RDA is recognized positively by their employers.  Most common barriers to participation:  lack of time (74%),  no budget for travel (51%)  no financial incentives to do the work in RDA (33%) Community Survey Response

11  71% agreed coordination, communication, and engagement should be main directions (22% not sure, 5% no), but more specific goals, activities, and metrics of success are needed. Less talking, more doing!  105 of 296 want to participate in CC&E actions (and provided )  69 in Coordination  81 in Communication  80 in Engagement  Proposed actions that had most volunteer support:  tracking of RDA activities and results  writing collaborative papers  gathering and disseminating adoption success and failure stories  organizing joint events with domain-based data management organizations  providing training for various data-driven organizations  Most common themes in suggested first steps:  finding and inviting motivated individuals  identifying and prioritizing domains, organizations, and activities  developing strong messages for the right audiences and channels  facilitating cross-domain/cross-organizational collaboration Survey Results Summary See full report at

Proposals for feedback…. Findings from workshops and survey consultation, analysed and presented by the organising group, seeking membership feedback via webinars

13  Communications with communities increase impact - primarily delivered by RDA membership.  Possible strategies:  Identification/recruitment of 50 members who can serve as communications ambassadors to lateral stakeholders / domains  Recruitment of individuals / organizations to write stories/create content (including regional RDAs)  Conduct of data-related events to promote recognition and build community  Development of clear statements of value and compelling targeted messaging to existing and new communities  Development of white papers to promote discussion of key data-related issues Community Communications

14  Communications with stakeholders help promote sustainability - primarily delivered by RDA leadership.  Possible strategies:  Plan for communications with key stakeholders including needed preparation, and workflow implementation and designation of responsible individual  Development of statements of value and compelling targeted messaging about investment in RDA  Identification of messengers to stakeholders  Improved communications among Council, senior leadership and stakeholders Stakeholder Communications

15  Communications among ourselves help disseminate information and increase efficiency - primarily delivered by the RDA Secretariat.  Possible strategies:  Create and implement an overall RDA communications plan  Focus Secretariat efforts on facilitating and community efforts on creating content  Regularize effective communications (balance between push and pull);  Gather feedback on outputs/activities  Create a more effective monthly newsletter [Include a “do you know” section?]  Make it easy for WGs and IGs to write news and submit to newsletter  Develop collateral and materials to assist membership in messaging  Create web resources for members to use for communication  Provide training for 50 members (+ good member communicators) Facilitate plenary sessions about communicating about RDA  Coordinate the gathering and disseminating success and failure from adoption by membership Membership Communications

16  Engagement with communities promotes growth and expansion - primarily delivered by RDA membership.  Possible Strategies:  Develop a cohort of RDA Champions in a variety of research domain and organizations, who could be an authoritative voice able to strengthen the engagement, particularly across research domains. While the 50 suggested earlier are selected for their communications skills, this group is selected for their gravitas and status with particular research domains. There may, indeed, be overlap in membership between the two groups.  Organize joint events with domain-based management organizations  Offer training / webinars about RDA for various organizations  Have liaisons from TAB to WGs promote community development as part of their interactions / oversight Engagement with Communities

17  Engagement with stakeholders should help promote sustainability - primarily delivered by RDA leadership.  Possible strategies:  Foster next generation leadership for RDA through recruitment and encouragement  Create an overarching engagement plan that is strategic in nature for cultivating existing and new stakeholders  Invite representatives of industry / startups / entrepreneurship to RDA Plenaries and related activities. Engagement with Stakeholders

18  Engagement with ourselves promotes RDA community development - primarily delivered by RDA membership and RDA Secretariat.  Possible strategies:  Maintain approach of Plenaries as fostering the RDA community: A success of the RDA Plenaries is to build community engagements – much of the reason to attend plenaries for many participants is to engage with data peers from around the world  Enhance opportunities for leadership development  TAB liaison officers work with WG/IGs on community development  Provide venue for shared experiences from component groups including TAB mapping, OAB mapping  Designate someone/a small group to focus on community development  Document and highlight successful collaborative activities with other organisations from an engagement perspective e.g. data citation agreement between multiple organisations Engagement with Ourselves

19  Coordination amongst ourselves promotes efficiency and effectiveness - primarily delivered by the RDA membership and Secretariat.  Possible strategies:  Consider a future exercise to map how things connect, what gaps and overlaps there are, perhaps in 6 months time  Identify and promote the roles and responsibilities of volunteer RDA members  RDA seeks both technical and social change. RDA should develop an understanding of existing organizational models of non-technical organizations and their suitability for RDA and provide recommendations for improving efficiency and dealing with social deliverables Coordination amongst Ourselves

20  Coordination of RDA operations promotes efficiency - primarily delivered by the Secretariat.  Possible strategies:  Develop a tracking mechanism for RDA processes, actions, deliverables.  Establish priorities and metrics for effective coordination.  Publicize member recognitions and contributions on RDA website and in other appropriate collateral  Council to review the result of TAB and OAB mappings in order to consider a future mission map exercise. Council to establish a group to develop a future mission map. Mission map provides an articulation of how things connect, what gaps and overlaps are. Coordination of RDA Operations

21 …What do you think we should prioritise? …What do you want to volunteer for? Finally…