Research data training at the University of Lincoln

As part of the Orbital project to build a pilot Research Data Management (RDM) infrastructure at the University of Lincoln, I’m looking particularly at support, training and documentation.

We aim to start offering—early in 2013—an introductory 1-hour workshop on managing your research data, aimed at early-career researchers and postgraduate research students. In particular, we want to promote this training through three avenues:

1. As part of the Lincoln Graduate School‘s standard timetable of postgrad training;
2. Directly, to PhD students in the School of Engineering (our pilot group);
3. To researchers who completed our Data Asset Framework questionnaire.

The training will be supported by documentation (written and maintained through WordPress and a dedicated RDM reading list), presented through the main Orbital “bridge” site, which we’re starting to treat as a VRE.

Here’s an outline of the initial workshop. I’m meeting the Graduate School this afternoon to agree this.

“Managing your research data”

1. Definitions, terminology and scope (what do we mean by research data?)
2. Policies and laws affecting your data
   • University draft RDM policy
   • Funding mandates
   • Legal restrictions
3. The “research data lifecycle“
4. Data Management Planning (DMP)
   • DMPOnline
5. Practical tools for looking after your data
   • Awards Management System
   • CKAN
   • The Lincoln Repository
   • Cloud storage and cloud computing
6. Data publishing and citation
7. Where to go for further help and support

Comments welcome!