Loughborough to deliver 'integrated research data management solution'

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Loughborough University has announced a venture to deliver an integrated solution for its research data management.

The university says the project will enable staff, students and researchers to meet funding-body requirements for open access to data while providing a secure, long-term space for a wide range of content; all on a platform that encourages collaboration. It will also allow for the easy citation and re-use of their digital data by making it discoverable, citable and shareable from anywhere.

With impending funder guidelines set to come into effect, UK institutions are having to take measures to ensure their research data is stored securely and persistently, with appropriate metadata, and made freely accessible on the internet.

Arkivum – the provider of large scale, long-term, and guaranteed digital archiving solutions, Figshare – the research data management platform that specialises in ‘active data’, and Symplectic – the software company specialising in developing, implementing and integrating research information systems, will be working in partnership with the university.
 
The university says this integrated solution meets its key requirements – the lowering of operating costs, the provision of a reliable service from suppliers with established reputations in the UK, and compliance with RCUK funding guidelines and UK legal requirements.  The solution will support the storage of primary data generated during original research projects, alongside derived and summarised data used to support publications.
 
Peter Townsend, director of the research office, said: 'The future of our research data is of huge importance to Loughborough University. Loughborough was looking for a solution that didn’t just deliver minimum levels of compliance, but also provided a highly visible showcase for the top quality research carried out at the university.

'The service that we have commissioned from our new partners is highly innovative, and will place Loughborough at the very forefront of developments in research data management. We made a critical decision to implement a solution which not only gives us the flexibility to access and manage our active data, but also the long term archiving of valuable datasets. Getting our strategy right today, means that we’ll see benefits across our research sooner and it will be preserved for the future.'