I attended a meeting of the south west MRD projects at Bath last week. It was useful to gain an overview of the other projects, explore commonalities and the potential for information sharing. A brief summary of the main topics follows:
Training Concerns expressed over the sustainability and effectiveness of online delivery. Are face to face workshops necessary and who should deliver these in the future? Including support staff in training (library and research support) could be important for sustainability. Timing of PG skills development felt to be crucial to avoid overloading new PGRs; basic guidance at start followed by specific training as appropriate.
DMPs We discussed the need to identify where the expertise to advise and write DMPs fits in the infrastructure and to provide training for the designated staff. Also where the checks for DMPs sit in the approval process, possibly with compulsory checks e.g.finance. Recognised that integration within a project's normal procedures and processes involves a culture change and could take 4-5 years to enact.
Policy Development a broad institutional policy statement (e.g. Edinburgh) envisaged with specific detail in separate supplemementary documents (which could be discipline specific) and can update more frequently. Edinburgh was referenced as a good example.
Use of tools/methodologies DAF used by Bristol and Exeter, UWE questionnaire based on earlier project findings and DAF. Bath and Bristol using CARDIO (Bristol to establish current practice and requirements gathering).
Repositories Bath and UWE using Eprints, Bristol Drupal, Exeter DSpace. Bristol plan to place repository on top of their RDSF system. Exeter hope to integrate their outputs and data repositories. Problems with uploading and holding large datasets identified by Bristol and Exeter.
Thanks to Jez Cope for arranging and Bath for hosting the meeting.