Can we characterise Aotearoa New Zealand's research data at scale?

This workshop seeks to translate the approach and findings from an Australian sector initiative on the characteristics of research data and its supporting infrastructures at scale, and catalyse a similar initiative in Aotearoa New Zealand. It will benefit individuals in senior management or senior operational staff of research institutions. In particular, those in senior advisory and planning roles in research data infrastructure, research data service owners, individuals from Research Offices and information management. Equally important is participation from those in research roles responsible for data governance and management at larger scales, where their role seeks to meet their wider research community and stakeholder needs.

The ‘Macro View’ of data developed by the Research Data Culture Conversation (www.researchdataculture.org)  provides a first ever estimate of the scale of research data retained by Australian research institutions and national research infrastructure facilities for future access. Starting in 2017, this work built a consistent view across institutions, scaling from a few to a whole sector approach over time. The project team will describe how they carried this work forward, some of the insights gained, and how it is facilitating the conversations for change. 

To bring this into an Aotearoa New Zealand context, prior to the workshop we will survey New Zealand Universities and Institutions to ask some of the key questions, such as “how much unique data does your institution hold?”, and “given the importance of Indigenous Data Sovereignty in Aotearoa, and Te Tiriti requirements around active protection of taonga, what are the volumes and properties of Indigenous data in institutions?”. This workshop will not only review the emerging ‘Marco View’ of Australian research data, but use first hand data from participating New Zealand Institutions alongside both Australian and New Zealand case studies to explore the process and findings so far. There will be a series of presentations from research institutes on activities underway that support infrastructure at scale. 

The objectives of the session are to:

• Review this first ever estimate of Australia’s retained research data;

• Characterise macro level trends in the types of data being retained; 

• Define learnings and identify limitations for the macro view; and

• Receive input on defining next steps for Aotearoa New Zealand with regards to research data