Developing a national research data census

At last year’s THETA, we presented on the Macro View, a Research Data Culture Conversation (RDCC) initiative which surveyed Australian research organisations on their data holdings which showed an estimated 23% growth in Australia’s research data holdings between 2021 and 2022. As well as a first ever estimate of data volumes, the surveyed highlighted a gap in organisations’ ability to effectively characterise their research data or gain insights that would inform operational imperatives. As a result, through the ARDC Institutional Underpinnings programme, UNSW led two projects – Business Intelligence and Reporting, and Retention and Disposal. The yearlong projects engaged research organisations from across Australia to discuss their experience of characterising their research data and the alignment between research project lifecycle activities and key decisions. The projects identified areas within the existing research project lifecycle where investments would accelerate insights and improve an organisation’s ability to make decisions pertinent to governance, sustainability and infrastructure investments. This has informed the research data benchmarking survey, an activity initiated in 2024 in partnership with CAUDIT, to support the ongoing assessment of institution's ability to assess their data holdings.  

This presentation will report on the findings from the two projects as well as early findings from the CAUDIT benchmarking survey.