Managing Research Data - the Joint Information Systems Committee Programme

In covering the BRISSkit vision for a cloud-based open-source "research application as a service" at the end of last year, we mentioned the Joint Information Systems Committee's (JISC)  Managing Research Data workstream about which we've been hearing a lot more recently and thought we should pass on the basics and a link for your own browsing:

JISC are a non departmental public body who support higher education and research in the UK by providing advice on the use of ICT - their Managing Research Data workstream supports both good data management and the sharing of data "for the benefit of UK Higher Education and Research". Their work in this area focuses on infrastructure, practice and skills:

• piloting essential research data management infrastructures within institutions and for distributed research groups
• improving practice in research data management planning
• developing tools to help institutions plan their research data management practice
• encouraging the publication of research data and demonstrating the benefits of improved methods for citing, linking and integrating research data
• and, stimulating the acquisition of appropriate skills, among academics and research support staff in Universities

Follow this link to their page which contains further information about their internationally recognised Digital Curation Centre and more information on the five strands of the programme which include projects, planning, tools and training.