Cover Sheet for Bids

(All sections must be completed)

Please indicate which strand you are applying for:

Strand A1 Strand B

Strand A2 Strand C

Name of Lead Institution: University of the West of England, Bristol

Name of Proposed Project: Managing Research Data: a pilot study in Health and Life Sciences

Name(s) of Project Partners(s) (except commercial sector – see below)

This project involves one or more commercial sector partners

YES / NO (delete as appropriate)

Name(s) of any commercial partner company (ies)

Full Contact Details for Primary Contact: Name: Amanda Conway Position: Service Development Librarian Email: amanda.conway@uwe.ac.uk Tel: 0117 3281733 Address: Library Services, Bolland Library, UWE, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY

Length of Project:

18 months

Project Start Date:

1st October 2011 Project End Date: 31st March 2012

Total Funding Requested from JISC: £ 94170

Total Institutional Contributions: £ 47273

Outline Project Description

The fundamental aim of the project will be to develop a data management system for researchers who are also practitioners and lecturers. It must have a clearly understood rationale, together with processes that fit with the university’s existing research and administrative structures. Structures and processes must be straightforward in order to have credibility. We will draw on the outcomes of previous JISC projects to develop recommended models of requirements for researchers, and confirm their applicability to research at UWE through interviews. Following guidance from DCC documents and guides, we will develop technical and administrative protocols to enable research data and metadata to be integrated with the existing Research Repository. These will be tested on data from selected projects, evaluated, reviewed and retested. Online guidance and training materials for researchers will be developed and trialled with researchers in the sample research centres.

I have looked at the example FOI form at

Appendix A and included an FOI form in this bid YES / NO (delete as appropriate)

I have read the Funding Call and associated Terms and Conditions of Grant at Appendix B

YES / NO (delete as appropriate)

For FE institutions only: Please tick this box if you are an FE institution in England, please tick this box to confirm that you meet the eligibility requirement of teaching HE to more than 400 FTE

x

Appropriateness and fit to programme objectives, and overall value to the JISC community.

1. The University of the West of England (UWE) is one of the largest post 1992 universities, with a flourishing research community and a growing reputation for excellence. In RAE2008, over a third (37%) of UWE’s research was considered to be world-leading or internationally excellent, as a result of which it more than doubled its research funds from the Funding Council. In March 2010, the University successfully launched its Open Access Research Repository for research outputs. This has been enthusiastically received by the University, and by its first anniversary held over 10,000 records, around 10% of which are available in full text. Individual researchers have asked for assistance with managing research data, with requests being directed to the Research Repository Manager. This, together with an acceptance within Library Services and the university’s Research Business and Innovation Deparment (RBI) that data curation is becoming an essential aspect of the research cycle has led to the university now turning its attention to developing a more co-ordinated approach to research data management. As such, Strand A1 of the latest round of JISC funding offers the opportunity for UWE to tackle this issue head on, building on work that has already been undertaken elsewhere, while at the same time contributing a post 1992 perspective to the wider HEI and JISC community.

2. The lessons from establishing governance and a usable data management environment for sample research centres would, in the longer term, be used to establish a working solution which meets the needs of the university’s wider research community and supports institutional and external requirements. Given the current research environment in which funding bodies are increasingly stipulating that data management be properly addressed, the work would add value to the university’s research process, fulfil funding body requirements, and close a gap in the research life cycle at UWE, where outputs are frequently readily available, but supporting data is not.

3. This project provides the opportunity to develop procedures and guidance appropriate in the context of a post-1992 institution. The fundamental aim of the project will be to develop a data management system with a clearly understood rationale, and processes that fit with the university’s existing research and administrative structures. Structures and processes must be straightforward in order to have credibility with busy researchers who are also practitioners and lecturers. The project will put in place guidelines and procedures that enable researchers to engage with managing research data from the outset of their research projects and throughout the research cycle. The project will raise awareness of research data management issues within the university and within the wider University Alliance community. An additional advantage will be to raise the profile of the UWE Research Repository to researchers within and outside the institution.

Project proposed with links to previous JISC projects

4. The project will focus on the data capture and curation needs of two selected Research Centres within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (HLS), namely the Centre for Research in Biosciences, and the Centre for Health and Clinical Research. The two research centres capture a range of data types, issues and challenges, and their involvement builds on interest and commitment already expressed by the centre Directors. Working with groups within HLS affords the opportunity to look at a variety of data management issues, which will assist in scoping the challenges for an institution at the early stages of establishing data management policy, protocols and systems. These will include matters related to ethics and confidentiality, a wide variety of data formats, working with external partners, such as Health Trusts, and issues of commercial intellectual property.

5. In brief, the intended outcomes of the project will be to

“Win hearts and minds” of all relevant stakeholders, including academic, library, administrative and technical staff

prepare suitable guidance for researchers to enable their data management experience to be as straightforward as possible, building on current experience with the institutional Research Repository

develop institutional processes and protocols to ensure consistency in metadata

enable integration with the existing UWE open access Research Repository

disseminate through appropriate channels, including post-92 and other peer institutions, for example through the Modern Universities Research Group and the University Alliance.

6. UWE has research data sets which would not naturally fit into the Research Repository

because of their size. While these data sets aren’t likely to form part of this pilot, the project team will need a plan for archiving them when the pilot ends and research data management is deployed more widely. For this type of data, we would expect to follow KRDS1’s Recommendation 4 and use a federated storage structure, using department and faculty level storage but with publication of metadata and management of access handled by the Research Repository. UWE will also take advantage of funder-provided or discipline-specific national and international repositories. If necessary for very large data sets, UWE will investigate the use of JISC, Science and Technology Funding Council or public cloud-based storage.

7. For managing data before it is ready for publication, UWE’s developments will be informed by the results of the ADMIRAL and MaDAM projects. UWE is unlikely to be able to afford or sustain a solution like that seen in ADMIRAL. The server-per-group federated model used in ADMIRAL would cost too much in terms of equipment. However, the sort of custom centralised solution used in MaDAM is achievable. Rather than Oracle, UWE is more likely to use SharePoint or EPrints combined with existing faculty and central storage.

Quality of proposal and robustness of workplan Project plan

8. The project will consist of five interlinked work packages. First we will assess and build on the outcomes of previous JISC MRD projects such as Research Data Management guidance from the University of Edinburgh, MaDAM and Incremental to develop models for identifying data management requirements, and assist sample researchers to identify data management activities based on their requirements. Second we will develop protocols and processes based on guidance available in DCC documentation and appropriate to the internal procedures of the university. Third we will apply the processes to the sample data and projects to test their viability, evaluate their success, and revise as necessary. This cycle can be repeated. The fourth element of the project will be to develop institution specific guidance and training materials for researchers to refer to and utilise. The management of the project will form the fifth element of the plan. Work package 1: Models of data management requirements

9. Project staff will undertake an analysis of the outcomes and recommendations of projects from the previous MRD programme, in order to produce models of research data management appropriate to the subject areas which form the focus of the project. These will form the basis of discussion with researchers in the sample research centres who will adopt or adapt models to suit perceived project and institutional needs.

Stakeholders to be involved: Researchers, Research Centre Directors

Deliverable 1: A pilot plan for data management for two sample Research Centres in

the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. A report identifying the lessons learnt from

the process, with recommendations for replication or further investigation.

Timescale: 3 months

Work package 2: Developing institutional processes

10. Building on previous experience in MRD projects and guidance available from the DCC, project and university staff will develop pilot processes that both reflect good practice in data management, and fit the existing and developing administrative and technical structures and protocols within the university. This will include issues related to IT infrastructure and processes and the creation of metadata for inclusion in the UWE Research Repository.

Stakeholders to be involved: Research managers, Research, Business and

Innovation (RBI), IT Services, Research Repository team.

Deliverable 2: A pilot plan for integrating data management and curation procedures

into existing university processes and culture. A draft institutional policy.

A report identifying the key stages in the process that might be adopted or adapted

by similar institutions.

Timescale : 3 months (concurrent with work package 1)

Work package 3: Test cycles

11. This work package forms the heart of the project, where the requirements of the sample Research Centres and the pilot model of processes and procedures are tested together. This will be carried out by the Project Officer, IT Services staff and Library Services staff with contributions from other stakeholders as required. The processes will be evaluated by stakeholders: in IT Services for the IT infrastructure requirements, RBI for the administrative and IP processes, Library Services for articulation or integration with the Research Repository, and the researchers themselves for transparency, usability and efficiency of process. Matters such as ownership of collaboratively generated data will also be considered. This iterative process forms the ongoing evaluation of the project, undertaken by the researchers and administrators who will be the end users of the project’s deliverables.

Stakeholders to be involved: IT Services, Library Services, RBI, Researchers, Research Managers

Deliverable 3 : Report and flowchart of recommended processes incorporating issues of IPR, copyright and confidentiality, and explaining how these processes fit with current institutional practice

Timescale: 9 months Work package 4: Guidance and Training

12. Development of a resource of online guidance and advice will be based on the websites developed by the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge as part of the outcomes of the Incremental project. The resource, made available through the institutional website, will incorporate the processes developed in work package 2 above, so that researchers are guided through the university’s procedures for data management. Technical development of this resource will be undertaken by members of UWE Library Services’ eLearning team. Through established connections with university colleagues, the team will work to embed processes in the research activity cycle. We will build on Library Services’ reputation for developing and delivering successful guidance and training resources through web pages and workshops, exploiting the recent success of the Repository.

13. The project team will work with RBI to integrate training for research data management into the development programme for new and existing researchers.

Stakeholders to be involved: Research Managers, Researchers, RBI, Library eLearning team

Deliverable 4 : Online guide for researchers

Timescale: 6 months Work package 5: Project Management

14. The project will be overseen by a Steering Group composed of senior representatives of Library Services, IT Services, RBI, and the research community in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Professor Paul Gough, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic will chair the Steering Group which will report to the University’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Executive. The Group will meet 4-6 times during the life of the project. The Project Manager will be recruited to work 0.5 fte for the duration of the project. The Project Officer will work full time for the duration of the project. Both posts will be located in the central Library Services team and report to Amanda Conway the Service Development Librarian. It is anticipated that there could be appropriately skilled people available within the university community to fulfil these roles, although it is recognised that there might be a need to recruit externally. The project plan allows 3 months to get all personnel in place. Evaluation

15. Evaluation of the different phases of the project will take place as each work package is completed. This activity will be integrated into the ongoing management of the project. As an institution, UWE is at the beginning of the process of developing systems for research data management. Therefore we will seek to make use of the expertise and support of colleagues at the Digital Curation Centre in evaluating the project as it progresses, and in its final stages. Personnel

16. The project will draw together the expertise of three key areas of the University: (RBI); IT Services; and the Library, including the Research Repository team. In addition, two Research Centre Directors from the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences will be invited to join the project Steering Group. Combining these areas of expertise will enable a thorough examination of existing solutions, and their adaptation to a pilot to meet the specific needs of researchers at this institution.

17. RBI provides support for research, business engagement and innovation across the

university. Their involvement enables access to a range of research, research governance, IP and researcher development expertise. Through an initiative to establish a distributed but single integrated university-wide research administration from January 2012, research data management policy and processes will be incorporated within consistent and coordinated business processes for research. RBI is also leading on the development of staff support under the Researcher Development Framework, and are therefore well placed to feed the results of this project into staff development and dissemination work.

18. IT Services will provide the technical knowledge necessary to complete and extend the work.

The Library’s Head of IT, Jon Hallett, is managed from IT Services, and so can provide both the Library and wider IT infrastructure perspective to the project. Jon has supported all of the technical aspects of the university’s institutional Repository, from initiation to on-going maintenance and so is well placed to work on a solution that will marry systems to control research data and research output.

19. It is envisaged at this stage that a data repository would fall under Library management,

alongside the existing Research Repository for research outputs. The Research and Knowledge Exchange Librarians will be members of the Steering Group for the project, and

the repository manager will be involved with the project team. They will ensure the use of suitable metadata which fits with the existing Repository.

Previous experience of the project team Steering Group

20. Professor Paul Gough is the DVC (Academic) and will be the Chair of the Steering Group for this project. He chaired the steering group for the Research Repository, and was the key UWE champion for its development and implementation. Paul was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Art, Media & Design and Assistant Vice Chancellor (Research & Knowledge Exchange) at UWE. He has an international reputation as an academic, artist and broadcaster. Among his many roles he was on the Strategic Advisory Group of AHRC and was Chair of the Art & Design RAE panel in 2008.

21. Richard Bond is Head of Research & Development in RBI, the University’s support office for research and business engagement. Since 1993, Richard has led the development of UWE’s research support services during a period of immense growth and increasing maturity as a research-active institution. His responsibilities include oversight of Research Governance and Ethics and leading the University’s RAE/REF submission. He was also a key member of the team that established the University’s successful Research Repository.

22. Dr Pam Moule is the Director of the Centre for Health and Clinical Research which is a key collaborator in the Bristol Research and Innovation Group for Health (BRIG-H), a Bristol–wide strategic partnership, which spans UWE, the University of Bristol, Bristol City Council and local health trusts. Patients and the public are central to the Centre’s research activity, with patient involvement underpinning the Centre’s work and ensuring that research results in real benefits for service users, carers and health workers. Dr Moule’s research expertise includes research methodologies and the dissemination of research through online methods and communities of practice.

23. Prof Olena Doran is the Director of the Centre for Research in Biosciences at UWE, with

areas of expertise in genetics and molecular biology. The Centre specialises in research in areas including-bio sensing technology, sustainable food production and pollutant remediation, biological and chemical decontamination in healthcare and other environments, the environmental biology and ecology of fish and water quality. Professor Doran’s national and international roles include being a Member of the Expert Panel of the European Food Standard Agency; a Referee for the National Institute for Health Research Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC): Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme; and a Referee for UK Research Councils.

24. Amanda Conway is Service Development Librarian at UWE with overall responsibility for the

institutional Research Repository. She joined the Library Services at the University of the West of England in September 2009 and has led on the development and roll out of the UWE Research Repository. Previously Amanda worked for Hewlett Packard’s Information Services where she was involved in the creation and development of their research repository as well as in supporting the information needs of research and development in the company.

25. Jenni Crossley has worked with UWE Libraries in a number of roles since 2000, and is

currently one of the Librarians for Research and Knowledge Exchange. This role includes oversight of the university’s Research Repository, developing information literacy, and support for researchers, and co-ordinating the Library’s contribution to the REF process. She has managerial and advocacy experience.

26. Judith Stewart has many years experience at UWE supporting students and researchers in their information needs. She is currently one of the Librarians for Research and Knowledge Exchange, a role which includes oversight of the university’s Research Repository, developing information literacy and support for researchers and co-ordinating the Library’s contribution to the REF process. She has project management and advocacy experience, and is currently undertaking doctoral research in the field of Higher Education.

27. Jon Hallett is the Library IT Manager at the University of the West of England. In 2009, he implemented UWE’s EPrints Research Repository. He has been with UWE since 2007 and has technical and management roles. He has 16 years experience as a systems administrator and has particular expertise in scripting. Before UWE, he worked in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

Project team

28. Anna Lawson has been working as Repository Manager at UWE since January 2010, and has been involved with the UWE Research Repository since it was launched. This has included uploading content from publication databases across the university, consulting with research staff on using the repository for the upcoming REF, and developing advocacy materials, guidance and training sessions for research staff who use the repository. She also works with IT staff on technical developments and improvements, and to ensure that all metadata in the repository complies with the Dublin Core standard.

29. To be recruited to the project team: Project manager 0.5 Project officer 1.0

30. Jon Hallett, Judith Stewart and Jenni Crossley will contribute time to the project team at various stages of the project. Philip Whitelow, the Library’s web developer, will provide the technical expertise to produce any web based guidance and training packages. A Research Officer from the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences will bring knowledge and expertise related to administrative processes. Sustainability

31. The project Steering Group and Project Team will both include existing members of University staff. It is anticipated that a data management system will run alongside the existing Research Repository, which is managed by Library Services, and would ultimately, once established, fall under the role of the Repository Manager. Resources for training and guidance will be managed by the Librarians for Research and Knowledge Exchange.

32. Through the sponsorship of the DVC and oversight by the Research & Knowledge Exchange

Executive, the outcomes of the project will be widely disseminated through the university. Following the pilot, a University data management policy will be finalised and promulgated, and implemented through various communication channels and staff development activities. Further stages of development and implementation are envisaged which will be supported as appropriate through the University’s Research and Research Investment strategies.

33. In terms of computing resources and storage, the project will aim to use existing resources as far as possible. The existing (and successful) EPrints Research Repository will be extended to include suitable published research data. EPrints runs on UWE’s virtual machine and storage area network infrastructure, which allows it to be expanded easily and cheaply. UWE is already committed to running the Research Repository in the long term.

Risk assessment Risk Probability

(1-5) Severity (1-5)

Score (P x S)

Action to mitigate/manage risk

Failure to recruit to project manager and officer roles

2 5 10 Clear concept of skills required for both posts will aid recruitment process.

Lack of buy-in from key Research Centre Directors, leading to lack of access to individual research projects

2 4 8 As stakeholders will be selected on the basis of interest already shown in data management issues, this should not too problematic. Other Research Centre Directors can be approached if necessary.

Technical – failure to apply a solution which provides a suitable management system, and which does not tie in with existing repository.

1 5 5 Having looked at the options currently available, this is not seen as high risk. Development of a new system is not anticipated.

IPR

34. Any tangible outputs and deliverables from the project, for example web based guidance and training materials, will be made available to the wider HE and JISC community. Engagement with the community

35. In the development of institutional infrastructure and processes for data management we envisage that dissemination will be beneficial to the research community and those involved in research and research administration within the University of the West of England, and to the wider HE and JISC community.

36. Regular dissemination of the progress of the project will be achieved through a blog on the project web site. This will be accessible to people within the UWE research community and to those in the wider HE and JISC community. In addition to this we will have a closed group on Facebook for UWE researchers involved in, or interested in, the project through which questions can be raised on aspects of data management. The account will be monitored by a member of the project team, and significant discussions can be disseminated through the blog. Termly reports will be submitted to UWE’s monthly Bulletin to maintain the profile of the project in the university.

37. The project team is keen to share the issues involved in developing institutional structures for data management with institutions of similar size and culture. Therefore in addition to an online presence we plan to hold dissemination events such as a discussion forum with relevant colleagues in other universities, with a focus on the University Alliance group. We anticipate that this will be as beneficial to the development of the project as it is to other members of the community. Feedback from other institutions will also act as an evaluative tool of the project’s tangible outputs.

38. As required by JISC, reports will be written to draw together the findings and outcomes of

the different stages and work packages of the project, and these will be shared through the web site and at Programme events. Dissemination will also take place through presentations at appropriate conferences and workshops with a focus on different stakeholder groups, such as libraries, research administrators, research support organisations, and data managers. Contributions to DCC events and publications will be a key part of the dissemination effort. Budget

39. The budget breakdown is shown in full on the next page of the document. Please note that time for Anna Lawson and Phil Whitelow (Library Services staff, grade E) and a grade F research officer are not included against indirect costs, but form part of the university’s contribution.

Directly Incurred Staff

Apr11– Mar 12 Apr 12– Mar 13 TOTAL £

Project Manager H Grade, 18.5 hours pw (50% FTE)

£ 12688 £26113 £ 38801

Project Officer E Grade 37 hours pw 100% FTE

£ 15659 £ 32210 £ 47869

Total Directly Incurred Staff (A) £ 28347 £58323 £86670

Non-Staff Apr11 – Mar 12 Apr 12– Mar 13 TOTAL £

Travel and expenses £500 £1000 £1500

Hardware/software: 2xPCs with hard drives. Data storage space

£ 1000 £1000 £ 2000

Dissemination £500 £1500 £ 2000

Evaluation £ £ 1000 £ 1000

Other : Recruitment £ 1000 £ £ 1000

Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B)

£ 3000 £ 4500 £ 7500

Directly Incurred Total (C) (A+B=C)

£ 31347 £ 61823 £ 94170

Directly Allocated Apr 11– Mar 12 Apr 12– Mar 13 TOTAL £

Staff £ 11941 £ 24365 £ 36306

Estates £ 488 £ 990 £ 1478

Other -- -- --

Directly Allocated Total (D) £ 12429 £ 25355 £ 37784

Indirect Costs (E) £ 3139 £ 6350 £ 9489

Total Project Cost (C+D+E) £ 46195 £ 93528 £ 141443

Amount Requested from JISC £ 31347 £ 61823 £ 94170

Institutional Contributions £ 15568 £ 31705 £ 47273

Percentage Contributions over the life of the project

JISC 66.6 %

Partners 33.4 %

Total 100%

No. FTEs used to calculate indirect and estates charges, and staff included

No FTEs 2.56

Which Staff Project Manager, Project Officer, Jenni Crossley, Judith Stewart (R&KE Librarians) and Jon Hallett (Library IT Manager)*

Timetable

Date Project management

Work package 1 Work Package 2

Work Package 3

Work Package 4

Dissemination highlights

Oct 2011

Recruitment. Establish Steering group. Steering Group meets.

Recruit projects/researchers

Brief research administrators

Brief IT colleagues

Article in UWE Bulletin. Set up web page, FB page, blog.

Jan 2012

Develop models of research data management

Map required processes technical and administrative

Explore relationship with IRR

April 2012

Steering Group meets

Testing and review Testing and review

Testing and review

UA Forum

July 2012

Implement data management pilot

Testing and evaluation

Testing and evaluation

Writing online guidance for researchers

Oct 2012

Steering Group meets

Evaluation and review. Final report from wp1.

Proposals for administrative process and suggested policy to University committees

Jan 2013

Draft of proposed institutional policy.

Pilot of online guidance. Testing and review.

Dissemination event for Library community.

March 2013

Steering Group meets

Final report from wp 2

Final Report from wp 3

Upload guidance. Final report from wp4

Final report, including evaluation.