Creating a Community of Data Champions

Abstract

Research Data Management (RDM) presents an unusual challenge for service providers in Higher Education. There is increased awareness of the need for training in this area but the nature of the discipline-specific practices involved make it difficult to provide training across a multi-disciplinary organisation. Whilst most UK universities now have a research data team of some description, they are often small and rarely have the resources necessary to provide targeted training to the different disciplines and research career stages that they are increasingly expected to support.
 This practice paper describes the approach taken at the University of Cambridge to address this problem by creating a community of Data Champions. This collaborative initiative, working with researchers to provide training and advocacy for good RDM practice, allows for more discipline-specific training to be given, researchers to be credited for their expertise and creates an opportunity for those interested in RDM to exchange knowledge with others. The ‘community of practice’ model has been used in many sectors, including Higher Education, to facilitate collaboration across organisational units and this initiative will adopt some of the same principles to improve communication across a decentralised institution. The Data Champions initiative at Cambridge was launched in September 2016 and this paper reports on the early months, plans for building the community in the future and the possible risks associated with this approach to providing RDM services.

Scientific impact and the quest for visibility

“…Conversely, without targeted education, many researchers are unlikely to recognise the benefits of engaging with and adopting new Open Science practices. To address this issue, the University of Cambridge recently created a community of Data Champions – researchers, PhD students or support staff who volunteer some of their time to advocate for good research data management and openness within their own departments . I took part in this ‘community of practice’, which offered freedom in deciding how much time you spend on advocacy and how you want to engage with local peers.…”

Establishing, Developing, and Sustaining a Community of Data Champions

“…The primary objective of the Data Champion Programme, as detailed in the initial paper on the Programme by Higman, Teperek and Kingsley (2017), was to create a community of RDM advocates and trainers with strong links to both the central support infrastructure and their local communities of research practice (Figure 1). Data Champions (DCs) are volunteers recruited from across the University, who advise members of their own research communities on proper handling of research data, promote good RDM, and support FAIR research principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable data (Wilkinson et al, 2016).…”

“…Engaging researchers in effective Research Data Management (RDM) has proven a challenge, despite established incentives of better visibility, reproducibility, impact, and efficiency of research (Markowetz, 2015;Ingram, 2016), and despite growing pressure from institutions and funding bodies (Higman, Teperek and Kingsley, 2017;UKRI, 2018). Difficulties arise because researchers are either unaware of the benefits and evolving landscape of open science, do not possess the skills and resources to manage their own data effectively, or do not see its value because it is not appropriately rewarded by the current academic system.…”

“…From its inception the activities of the OSC have been unable to meet the demand, with frequently oversubscribed sessions. Despite this, some evidence shows that researchers were unaware of the support available for RDM (Higman, Teperek and Kingsley, 2017). Given the lack of additional central funding for support staff, an alternative community-based model for providing support was developed in the form of the Data Champions Programme (Higman, Teperek and Kingsley, 2017;Teperek, Higman and Kingsley, 2018).…”

“…Despite this, some evidence shows that researchers were unaware of the support available for RDM (Higman, Teperek and Kingsley, 2017). Given the lack of additional central funding for support staff, an alternative community-based model for providing support was developed in the form of the Data Champions Programme (Higman, Teperek and Kingsley, 2017;Teperek, Higman and Kingsley, 2018). Led by the Research Data Coordinator and overseen by the Research Data Facility Manager, this initiative was supported by the senior staff at both the University Library and the Research Office, who at the time were jointly responsible for the work of the OSC and their RDM team.…”