Research Data Culture Conversation - Paper 1 "A Summary of the Challenge"

Research data is a cross-organisational, multi-responsibility activity supported by many functions within a university, including research itself together with support ‘pillars’ including archives, data privacy, eResearch, IT, library, records and the research office. The “Research Data Culture Conversation” (RDCC) is a conversation between representatives of these pillars from Australian universities, focused on understanding the challenges faced in the current data generation climate. The results of these discussions over the last 2 years are in summary: A) Data growth in research is now so rapid it threatens a budget shift across a university which cannot be sustained into the future - something about data needs to change; B) The ever increasing expansion of data holdings is driven by research opportunities; C) Data is a new asset class requiring new investment; D) The existing national data conversation is well developed in Preservation, Sharing and Re-use E) The national conversation on Resourcing, Sensitivity and End-of-Life needs strengthening; F) Research Data Management Plans must inform decision making and must deliver the productivity gains needed as data grows; and G) Institutions, which are a primary location where data ambitions and obligations meet budgets, need nationally-coherent discipline-sensitive responses to be defined. This paper addresses A to E of the RDCC's observations