UKRDS: the policy context

26 February 2009

Paul HubbardHead of Research Policy, HEFCE

The Policy Context

• The national policy and funding framework

• Building on achievements

• A challenge: Making the case for UKRDS

Research: national policy and funding

Government policy:

• A world class national research base

• Making a clear contribution to economic growth and national well-being

National context:

• Public funding channelled through multiple sources (dual support)

• Funding in a recession: setting priorities and investing for recovery

Funding: role of HEFCE

HEFCE allocates capital and recurrent funding for research:

• As one of several interacting funding sources supporting the research base/ infrastructure; and

• To enable HEIs to pursue new research fields and lines of enquiry

We expect our funding to support a system that is

• Competitive in a global environment

• Dynamic and responsive

• Efficient in its use of public funds

Building on achievements (1)

The UK research base is

• Competitive: we are second only to the US in a number of major fields

• Dynamic and responsive: at the forefront of new ideas and increasingly responsive to the demands of research users

• Efficient: quality and volume of output is high in relation to scale of activity and level of investment

How have we done this?

Building on achievement (2)

The UK has an exceptional record in creating strong and efficient research information resources:

Print services:

Collaborative collection management (RSLP);

National research libraries;

BL Document supply centre;

UK Research Reserve

Research information resources

Online resources:

Licensing of electronic journals

JISC infrastructure services

Digital curation centre

Other support services:

Research information network

Making the case for UKRDS (1)

HEFCE hopes to see a case made for supporting a service that:

• Meets a proven need in the research base

– Research data is being and will be produced that

can be re-used

– Researchers will collaborate in ensuring it is stored

and will demand access to it later

Making the case (2)

• Is supported by a consortium of funders

– Sustainability and efficiency in the research base

are the shared concern of all main funding providers

• Is fully appropriate to the needs of researchers

– Standards for determining what is to be kept, for

how long and in what form

– Cataloguing and metadata

– Security

Making the case (3)

• Improves efficiency in the research process and is supported by a sound business case

– Evidence for levels of current and foreseeable

demand from researchers to store their data and

for access to data once stored

– Evidence for the savings from storing data which

would otherwise have to be re-created later

– Capital and recurrent costs of storage and active

management on this scale

Making the case (4)

• Sets out strong arrangements for management and future sustainability

– Ownership of the storage, of the system, of the data

– Who will determine standards and procedures

(including for updating, weeding and re-formatting

stored data)

– Arrangements designed to have a good chance of

lasting for many years

• Implementation is thoroughly planned

So there is still work to be done

Over to you!

Thank you for listening