1.
Research Data initiatives @
University of Edinburgh
Stuart Macdonald
Associate Data Librarian
EDINA & Data Library
University of Edinburgh
Email: stuart.macdonald@ed.ac.uk
BonaRes ‘Standards’ Consultation Workshop, Berlin, Oct. 12-13, 2016

2.
EDINA and Data Library are a Division within
Information Services (IS) of the University of Edinburgh
– Established in 1996 EDINA is a Jisc-funded centre for digital
expertise providing national online resources for education and
research.
– Digimap – an online web mapping and data delivery service
providing access to a range of maps and spatial data from
Ordnance Survey, British Geological Survey, UK Hydrographic
Office
– Free for staff and students at subscribing UK tertiary education
institutions.
– EDINA: http://edina.ac.uk/
Context

3.
Past Services & expertise:
• Geodoc, 2008 – 2016. Geospatial metadata creation and
publication tool
• GoGeo, 2008 – 2016. Geodiscovery portal for the
discovery of georeferenced data and resources
• Scottish Spatial Data
Infrastructure Discovery Service
(SSDI), 2009-2016. Discovery and metadata service for
Scottish geospatial resources.
• Unlock, 2009 – 2016. Georeferencing placenames and
geographic data searching

4.
Data Library & Consultancy assists Edinburgh University
users in the discovery, access, use and management of
research datasets.
• Data Library Services: http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library
Edinburgh DataShare is the University’s OA multi-
disciplinary data repository hosted built on the DSpace
platform
• Assists researchers who want to share their data, get credit
for data publication, and preserve their data for the long-term
(DOI, licence, citation)
• Certified a trusted digital repository via Data Seal of Approval
(Aug. 2015)
• Edinburgh DataShare - http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk

5.
MANTRA
• MANTRA is a self-paced online
training course for PGR’s and
early career researchers in
research data management
issues.
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra
• March 2016 - UNC-CH CRADLE
and MANTRA launched the
Research Data Management
and Sharing MOOC -
https://www.coursera.org/learn/data-management
• RDM training in the form of workshops, seminars and drop in sessions
to help researchers with RDM issues
• Formal training includes Handling data using SPSS; Visualising data
using ArcGIS / QGIS; Publishing and sharing sensitive data

6.
The Data Library is part of the new cross-
divisional University of Edinburgh Research
Data Service (RDS)
RDS is the culmination of a 48 month RDM Roadmap (Phases 0 -
4) to implement the University’s RDM Policy and develop a suite
of RDM Services that map onto the research lifecycle (completed
July 2016)
RDM Programme:
•Funded internally (c. 1.7 Million Euros)
•75% - infrastructure / storage
•25% - staffing (recurrent for 3 years)
RDM Roadmap:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/uoe-rdm-roadmap_-_v2_0_0.pdf

7.
A Jisc-funded pilot project produced 6 case studies from
research units across the University of Edinburgh which audited
Research data assets using the DAF methodology developed by
the Digital Curation Centre.
Data Audit Framework (DAF) Implementation
Pilot (May – Dec 2008)
Main outcomes:
• Develop university research data management policy
• Develop services & support for RDM (in partnership IS)
• Develop online RDM guidance & RDM training
DAF Implementation Project: http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/283/

8.
University of Edinburgh RDM Policy
• University of Edinburgh is one of
the first Universities in UK to
adopt a policy for managing
research data:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-data-policy
• The policy was approved by the
University Court on 16 May
2011.
• It’s acknowledged that this is an
aspirational policy and that
implementation will take some
years.

9.
In 2012 an RDM Policy Implementation Committee was set
up by the VP of Knowledge Management charged with
delivering services that will meet RDM policy objectives:
• Membership from across Information Services
• Iterate with researchers to ensure services meet the needs of
researchers
The VP also established a Steering Committee led by
Prof. Peter Clarke with members of the Research
Committee from the 3 colleges, IS, and the Research Office
Their role was to:
• Provide oversight to the activity of the Implementation Committee
• Ensure services meet researcher requirements without harming
research competitiveness
Governance

10.
Policy implementation: RDM Roadmap
Before research During research After research

11.
http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/
www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-managementhttp://datablog.is.ed.ac.uk/http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/
DataStore
https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/
http://edin.ac/1OF8Auq
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/datasync
Ready by mid-2016
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-data-policy
Data catalogue in PURE
http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/fil
es/rdm_service_a5_booklet_0.pdf

12.
Current activities & roles include:
Service Owner of the EDINA agcensus subscription service
• Provides access to grid square agricultural census data for Eng,
Sco, Wal (1969 – present)
Project Coordinator of UKRDDS University of Edinburgh Pilot
• Work with PhD interns to seed the UKRRDS with OAI-PMH-
compliant discovery metadata for research data generated by
Edinburgh researchers (harvested from Edinburgh DataShare and
the PURE data catalogue)
Project Manager of Pioneering Research Data Exhibition
• Working with cross-disciplinary PhD researchers to develop art-
science ‘data installations’
Project Manager of Statistical Analysis Support Pilot
• Survey PG students and staff to gauge level of statistical and
quantitative analysis support across the University

13.
Danke!
Email: stuart.macdonald@ed.ac.uk