access to research data: action is needed but what action

Bloomsbury Conference London my story -Background information SURFfoundation -initiatives & activities -Accessibility research data -Importance, urgency and questions -coherence enhanced publications & collaboratories -Starting points & scenarios for the future -Possible answers -Conclusion

Bloomsbury Conference London some background information -SURFfoundation -initiator of innovation in higher education and research -A focus area is scholarly communication -permanent access to research data, enhanced publications & collaboratories -Tried-and-tested SURF method for innovation: success through co-operation. -everything done with, for, & by staff participating institutions on basis of calls for tender -involves carrying out studies, setting up pilots, & organising small-scale grassroots projects

Bloomsbury Conference London my work package -Research data & access -Relatively small work package as part of SURFshare program -Supporting other work packages -Deliverables are building blocks to be used by universities as a starting point -Input for new SURF program 2012

Bloomsbury Conference London some initiatives - Tangible building blocks -3 projects regarding guidelines for preserving research data -study legal status of raw data -study organisational aspects of accessibility of data -Study about establishing a data centre -Research Data Forum -Co-ordinating Group with representatives from most important organisations in the field -3 working groups -legal, technical, data stewardship

Bloomsbury Conference London accessibility data -contradictory picture -few organisations and few initiatives -heterogeneous data infrastructure which results in many different forms of data networking & management -discipline orientated & based on existing organisations in research environment

Bloomsbury Conference London importance -SURFfoundation stimulates creation of enhanced publication -precondition is availability of data -SURFfoundation builds collaboratories with facilities for creating enhanced publications -precondition is accessibility of data -Continuing changes scholarly communication -Changing role of libraries

Bloomsbury Conference London urgency -Publishers work closely with & pamper researchers -researchers ask for possibilities for storage & access but who is going to help them -who wins the battle for the researchers -Several publishers have adopted data policies -influence data policies of utmost importance -ensure that data become & stay open data -How to co-operate with publishers & which role will both stakeholders play -how to prevent universities only act as a storage medium -where is point of convergence

Bloomsbury Conference London my questions -How to involve institutions & researchers to participate -time, manpower, money and perhaps interest is lacking -a few champions who share data is not enough -why initiate writing data management plans when the actual management is still unclear -How to change existing attitude regarding ownership of data -How to connect to the international environment

Bloomsbury Conference London possible scenarios -do the absolutely necessary and nothing more -researchers themselves take care for storage and access -data repositories managed by libraries -national repositories for different disciplines -1 big national domain unspecific data archive -cloud computing

Bloomsbury Conference London possible answers starting point: researcher controls data -explicit policies needed with allotting responsibilities -allocation part funding for deposit data & data management -accept several layered infrastructure -collaboratories -clear arrangements for service providers -archiving & storage on (inter) national level

Bloomsbury Conference London conclusion -data of growing importance in research environment -many initiatives on (inter) national level -picture activities and roles of stakeholders often incomplete -ambiguity which activities & responsibilities belong where quest which role SURF has to play, what initiatives to support, what role universities are willing to play & how we can do this together

Bloomsbury Conference London Thank you for your attention Wilma Mossink