The UOC, pioneering research data management

Under the Horizon 2020 framework, and with the aim of making it possible for publicly funded research to be used to launch further projects, the European Commission has initiated a research data pilot plan for a selection of early adopter projects, including two in which the UOC is involved: TeSLA and Perform.

Under this pioneering initiative, the participant projects must produce a data management plan, ie a tool to provide access to the research data generated or used in the projects. Such data can come from field observations, experimentation and simulation in laboratories, or from data mining.

There is a new website offering information on the pilot plan developed for the TeSLA and Perform projects. As well as information on their legal framework, it also explains the benefits of creating a data management plan for research data, and covers the experiences to date.

The UOC will analyse the results of the pilot plan before extending this concept to the rest of its research projects. Accordingly, the Research and Innovation Committee, led by the UOC Vice President for Strategic Planning and Research, Dr Marta Aymerich, has begun work on creating a research data management policy, to comprehensively cover the needs of research teams involved in European projects.

This experience was presented in the paper “Pla d’acció per a la gestió de dades de recerca en la UOC” [Action plan for research data management at the UOC] at the 15th REBUIN Workshop, which brought together three hundred professionals from Spanish university libraries in Castelló de la Plana on 29 and 30 September.