Image: MOOC tutors. From left to right: Sarah Jones, Rene van Horik, Alexandra Delipalta, S. Venkat, Ellen Verbakel.
In the second week of the Delivering Research Data Management Services we focused on “Finding the gap” in your RDM Services. One way to find the gap is by using the RISE tool. This tool can be used to define how mature the institution is on topics like research data policy and strategy, digital preservation, training, and active data management.
We asked the learners about their experiences and they found it useful reflecting on this:
“That was a good exercise, naming strengths and challenges. I am always very aware of the challenges, but it is good to reflect a moment on the strengths and realize that we have done some good work already.” Barbara Vermaas
Many learners identified areas in which their organisations were not doing everything well. Some had a lack of money, people, resources or interest from researchers. Several learners also realised that services are in place in their institutions but very diffuse and spread across multiple units.
Learners liked the gap analysis exercise and the SPARC online tool https://sparceurope.org/evaluate-your-rdm-offering. You can see an example output from this above. In the online forum learners shared results which showed a great difference in strengths and weaknesses across organisations. Naturally some organisations didn’t want to share the outcomes because the information can be very confidential. We encouraged them to speak with others in the organization to evaluate the assessment.
Many learners realised that they didn’t know about all the services already in place in their institution. Their first steps will be to make an inventory of what is available and see how they can align these with their own activities. Collaborating with colleagues to coordinate provision is key.
After finding the gap and having evaluated their efforts so far, the learners started week 3, focusing on how to set up services and good starting points.