Roadmap for EPSRC’s Research Data Management Expectations

Summary

Roadmap developed by the University of Exeter to meet the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) expectations for ensuring open access to data generated in EPSRC-funded research. Its development drove the Open Exeter project, funded with over one million pounds, to create an institutional data archive and integrate it into standard research workflows.

See also: Roadmap for EPSRC – University of Bath, an institutional response to the same mandate.

Promoting organizations

The initiative was promoted by the University of Exeter, which developed this roadmap to respond to the EPSRC’s expectations on the management of and access to research data. Internally, it was mainly driven through the Research & Knowledge Transfer Management Group and the EPSRC Stakeholder Group.

Objectives

In 2007, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) published a set of principles and guidelines aimed at facilitating access to digital research data generated as a result of public funding. Building on this, in 2011 RCUK (Research Councils UK, now UKRI) published seven data management principles in its Data Policy, advocating for the accessibility of research data. In December 2011, the government published its Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth, while most of the main funding councils were already implementing individual policies related to research data management.

Accordingly, in April 2011 all UK vice-chancellors received a letter from the EPSRC outlining its policy framework on research data and, in February 2012, they received a reminder requiring open access to the outputs of research by institutions receiving EPSRC funding, including the University of Exeter.

The EPSRC set out nine expectations, derived from the seven core RCUK data-sharing principles. One of these expectations was the development of an institutional “roadmap”, with 1 May 2015 established as the deadline for full organisational compliance.

Within this context, the University of Exeter developed this roadmap, outlining measures already adopted or planned, with the aim of ensuring compliance with EPSRC policies and those of other research funders.

Beneficiaries and stakeholders

The roadmap is addressed to the Research & Knowledge Transfer Management Group and the EPSRC Stakeholder Group. However, its implementation benefits the research community as a whole by making research data available.

Results

With the implementation of the actions and measures set out in the institutional roadmap, the Open Exeter project was launched, focusing on developing a training and guidance support framework aimed at establishing an institutional culture of effective research data management.

The Devon County Council (DCC) took the Data Asset Framework (DAF) survey into account to audit current research data management practices, and proposed conducting detailed interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of researchers’ processes, in order to develop tailored training and guidance for data management and storage.

Challenges

Coordinating the entire institution to meet the nine EPSRC expectations before 2015: governance, training and support, storage/repository infrastructure and integration with research workflows, while balancing openness with legal, ethical and cost requirements.

Evidence of success

The Open Exeter project received an allocation of £800,000 from the University’s Science Strategy Fund to establish a research data “archive” (EDA), as well as a further £250,000 from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to integrate the EDA and ensure that sharing research data became standard practice.

On the other hand, as the EPSRC stated in its message to the University’s Vice-Chancellor, an institutional roadmap was not formally required, since the EPSRC was not in a position to assess the suitability of each institution’s specific plans. Nevertheless, institutions were expected to achieve full compliance with the expectations once the deadline had passed. For this reason, the transfer potential of this practice may be of interest to other institutions that also receive EPSRC funding.