Dear Madam, Sir
PRESS RELEASE
28 January 2010
Successful reuse of research data requires integrated approach
On 23-24 September 2009 an international discussion workshop was held in Berlin, prepared and organised by Knowledge Exchange. The main focus of the workshop was on the benefits, challenges and obstacles of re-using data from a researcher’s perspective. The most important message from the wide variety of presentations was that successful reuse not only requires efforts directed at the technical issues, but also at providing incentives for researchers, both to share and re-use.
These incentives can be provided by funding opportunities, but also by incorporating data sharing and re-use in the research assessment. The issue of data re-use would be a lot more relevant to researchers if publishers, for example, asked authors for data to underpin their publications. Alternatively researchers’ data being cited in a journal should be rewarded. Technical aspects should also be addressed, e.g. by supporting data storage and sharing facilities. This requires not only specialised staff but also agreed standards (metadata, ontologies) which will allow different datasets to be evaluated, compared and combined. Researchers will need to be trained, but awareness will also need to be created at a higher level. Bottom-up and top-down approaches need to work in unison.
At the workshop the use cases presented by researchers from a variety of disciplines were supplemented by two keynotes and selected presentations by specialists from infrastructure institutions, publishers, and national and European funding bodies. Thanks to this broad approach it became clear that certain challenges and obstacles are comparable across disciplines and organisations. As a general recommendation the participants agreed that it is time to cooperate in more ambitious international activities to establish reliable and sustainable support for initiatives in the field of data related research infrastructure – as Prof. John Wood (Imperial College London) put it in his keynote: “You can no longer separate the data management issue from the planning and running of research infrastructures”.
The workshop was organised by the working group Primary Research Data of Knowledge Exchange.
For further information on the workshop please see:
http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/Default.aspx?ID=324
Notes for editors
About Knowledge Exchange
Knowledge Exchange is a co-operative effort that supports the use and development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) infrastructure for higher education and research. The European partners of Knowledge Exchange, DFG (Germany), JISC (UK), DEFF (Denmark) and SURFfoundation (The Netherlands), share a common vision based on their four national strategies. That vision is: To make a layer of scholarly and scientific content openly available on the Internet. In order to realise this goal, the partners work on supporting existing and new programmes on national and international levels, co-ordinating efforts on building an integrated repository infrastructure, exploring new developments in the future of publishing, facilitating integrated management services within education and research institutions and supporting libraries in the digital age.
For further information: www.knowledge-exchange.info<http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/>
Please contact: Keith Russell (Knowledge Exchange Office) on +31 30 2346600
or [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
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DFG - The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) is the central, self-governing research funding organisation that promotes research at universities and other publicly financed research institutions in Germany. The DFG serves all branches of science and the humanities by funding research projects and facilitating cooperation among researchers.
<http://www.dfg.de/>www.dfg.de<http://www.dfg.de>
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JISC – the Joint Information Systems Committee – is a joint committee of the UK further and higher education funding bodies and is responsible for supporting the innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) to support learning, teaching, and research. It is best known for providing the JANET network, a range of support, content and advisory services, and a portfolio of high-quality resources.
<outbind://169/Windows/www.jisc.ac.uk>www.jisc.ac.uk<http://www.jisc.ac.uk>
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DEFF - Denmark's Electronic Research Library is an organisational and technological partnership between research libraries co-financed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education. DEFF's purpose is to advance the development of a network of electronic research libraries that make available their electronic and other information resources to the patrons in a coherent and simple way. This is obtained partly through government funding and partly by joint purchase of licenses. The Danish Agency for Libraries and Media runs the secretariat of the partnership.
www.deff.dk<http://www.deff.dk>
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SURF is the collaborative organisation for higher education institutions and research institutes aimed at breakthrough innovations in ICT. SURF provides the foundation for the excellence of higher education and research in the Netherlands. SURF comprises three partners: SURFfoundation, SURFnet and SURFdiensten (SURFservices).
www.surf.nl<http://www.surf.nl>
On behalf of the KE partners,
Anne Maja Wad
Secretary
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[cid:999052010@28012010-2135]
Anne Maja Wad, Secretary
Knowledge Exchange
Danish Agency for Libraries and Media, H.C. Andersens Blvd. 2, DK-1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark
Direct telephone: (+45) 33 73 33 15
Email: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Web: www.knowledge-exchange.info<http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/>
_______________________________________________________________
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PLEASE NOTE: Managing Research Data Call 14/09 has been 'frozen' until further notice: please see http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/01/funding.aspx for more information.
*****
Dr Simon HODSON
Programme Manager – e-Research – Managing Research Data
JISC Executive
Brettenham House (South Entrance)
5 Lancaster Place
London WC2E 7EN
E: [log in to unmask]
M1: +44 (0) 7545 524 009
M2: +44 (0) 7891 501 174
T: +44 (0) 203 006 6071
Blog: http://researchdata.jiscinvolve.org/
Twitter: simonhodson99
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