University of Alberta Dataverse: A journey from standalone to a hosted community platform

University of Alberta Library Dataverse (UALD) is a deployment of the open source research data repository software developed and supported by the Harvard Dataverse Project, providing essential support in helping researchers at the University of Alberta (UA) to store, manage, share, and disseminate their research data since its first deployment in 2014. It enhances findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) of deposited content and its associated intellectual output. However, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain such an imperative and essential service in the face of a litany of challenges, including: continued increase of research data in terms of rate, volume and diversity; reduced and uncertain budgets; lack of localized IT personnel with specialized knowledge and skills due to the centralization of campus IT infrastructure and personnel; and fast changes of technologies such as cloud computing and storage. With these challenges in mind, it was decided to migrate the UALD from a standalone application to Scholars Portal’s dataverse, a collaborative platform and service operating at a national level across Canada. The collaboration allows participatory institutions to leverage shared computing infrastructure and resources, to tap into the pool of dedicated expertises, to stay at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies, to increase exposure of research data, and most importantly to overcome crippling challenges to provide sustainable services with cost-efficiency. The migration activities largely took place throughout 2021, with many valuable lessons learned. The journey of this migration is presented