The Medical Research Council have updated their data sharing web info and published detailed policy guidance for Population & Patient Studies at: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Ourresearch/Ethicsresearchguidance/datasharing/index.htm (Please note that the guidance on Data Management Plans is still to be updated ... soon).

Also a prototype MRC Research Data Gateway for the discovery of MRC-funded cohort studies and their datasets and variables is now available for use at https://www.datagateway.mrc.ac.uk/ . 

This prototype has been developed by a consortium of STFC and Oxford University and is currently being evaluated to guide its further development.

Researchers (and others) who would like to evaluate this prototype can register for an account with the Gateway via: https://www.datagateway.mrc.ac.uk/user/register . This is straight-forward for people with a ".ac.uk' email address. Contact me if you do not have such email address and would like to evaluate.

Information on User Testing is available in the gateway's User Testing Forum at: https://www.datagateway.mrc.ac.uk/forum/521 (this area is visible to registered users). 

You can either in general evaluate the gateway and its various features, or use predefined research scenarios that are posted in the User Testing Forum.

Please post your feedback/comments back onto the User Testing Forum, or send them to me by email, by Wed 1 February 2012.

Best regards,

Veerle

Dr Veerle Van den Eynden
MRC Data Support Service Project Manager
Medical Research Council
Email:   [log in to unmask]
Tel 020-7670-5705
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing
33 Bedford Place
London
WC1B 5JU

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