Establishing a shared research data service for UK universities

Research data is central to research; sharing and enabling access to research data are now seen as essential to research integrity. Making research data accessible goes beyond validation as it also supports new research and innovation. However, sharing of research data is not yet ‘business as usual’, though digital technology is making data sharing much easier and Jisc is currently harnessing this in partnership with the UK research community to develop the research data shared service (RDSS). The RDSS will enable research organizations to support researchers to easily deposit data for publication, discovery, safe storage, long-term archiving and preservation. Ultimately it will support researchers in sharing and re-using data and will enable increased reproducibility of research. The initial impetus for the development is to better enable institutions to meet policy requirements around research data, whilst exploiting efficiencies and best practice generated by working collectively. This article examines the development of this service so far, from initial ideas and requirements gathering to entering technical development