co-designing research it and research data services
TRANSCRIPT
IT Services R&D / ILRT
Slides produced in collaboration with the Research Data Service (data.bris)
Co-designing Research IT and Research Data Services
Dr Simon PriceAcademic Research IT Manager
Research IT
University of Bristol
• Research-intensive university
• 6 Faculties: Social Science & Law, Science, Engineering, Arts and two Medical Faculties
• Employs 2000+ researchers (excluding PhDs)
• Each year (approximately):• 1500 research funding applications• £100M research income• 4500 research outputs
Research IT
Co-designing Research Data Services
Research IT
The University of Bristol, pre-data.bris
Research IT
pre-data.bris
• £2m research data storage (only) facility launched in 2011
• Each researcher has 5TB storage without charge (additional storage available with a charge)
• Research Data Storage and Management Board, members from faculties and support services
• Pure (research information system)
Research IT
1. Standard way to publish research data
2. Sharing research-active data collaboratively
3. A way to link papers with datasets
4. Research Data Management (RDM) training
5. Data Management Plan (DMP) support
6. Institutional policy on RDM
pre-data.bris: not in place
Research IT
Jisc-funded pilot
Research IT
Co-designing data.bris
IT Services
Library Services
Research Services
Researchers
Research IT
Jisc-funded pilot
Research IT
Jisc-funded pilot
Research IT
Jisc-funded pilot
Research IT
Jisc-funded pilot
Research IT
Jisc-funded pilot
Research IT
Research IT
APPROVED
Research IT
Research IT
APPROVED
Research IT
Research IT
Inside the business case: 2013-2015Who?
• Ownership: Library Services
• Staff: 1x Service Manager, 3x Research Data Librarians, 1x Technical Support
When?
• August 2013 – August 2015
Doing what, day-to-day?
• ‘Self-help’ guidance in place but… some DMPs will be manually checked
• Online training available but… in-person training also available
• Self-deposit of datasets in place but… datasets still validated manually
Research IT
Timetable
• 2010-2012 pre Jisc-funded data.bris ‘pilot’
• 2012-2013 Jisc-funded data.bris ‘pilot’
• 2013-2015 Research Data Service ‘project phase’
• 2015+ ongoing Support Service
Research IT
Research IT
Research IT
Research IT is not Enterprise IT
• Efficiency-inspired centralisation and standardisation of IT provision at Bristol has resulted in measurable benefits for what might be described as Enterprise IT
• Research groups within a university function more like 1000s of small businesses rather than as one large enterprise
• Addressing such diverse needs in a scalable and sustainable way remains an open problem within the sector
Research IT
Co-designing Research IT Services
Mmm... Could we use the data.bris approach to tackle
Research IT?
Research IT
Co-designing Research IT (initial idea)
IT Services
Library Services
Research Services
Researchers
RIT
Research IT
Research IT Service pilot 2014 - 2016
Researchers
Research IT
Research IT Service ideas
• Computer Science and Digital Humanities
• Internal "market" for students• internal marketplace – paid in cash or course credits• managed projects – participating in research
• Outsourcing• crowdsourced approach• internships into companies (win-win)
• Regional collaboration (GW4)• shared resources• shared expertise/knowledge
Research IT
Co-designing Research IT
IT Services
Library Services
Research Services
Researchers
RIT
Computer Science
CommercialSector
Students
OtherUniversities
Research IT
Beyond service pilots
• One option under consideration at Bristol:
• Feed both pilot projects into an e-Research institute
• Multi-agency research service
• Multi-disciplinary "digital research"
• Combined support and academic functions
Research IT
Bristol is beautiful – come visit us!
Dr Simon Pricehttp://simonprice.info