Lincoln Hub DATA² project: Data architecture transforming access & analysis

Abstract

The Lincoln Hub is a collaboration between five research organisations with offices on the Lincoln Research campus: AgResearch, Landcare Research, Plant & Food Research (all Crown Research Institutes), DairyNZ, and Lincoln University. It is envisaged that the Hub will evolve to include a broad range of industry and research organisations with a commitment to land-based productivity and sustainability. The vision for the DATA² project is for research data produced by researchers and scientists in Hub organisations to be better managed, curated and shared for reuse. This will facilitate the production of new knowledge and innovation of direct benefit to New Zealand’s economic, environmental, social and cultural aspirations. Representatives from the five founding organisations formed a Working Group to assess the state of each organisation’s data management maturity and identify common research data management needs. Four workshops were held in Palmerston North, Auckland and Lincoln (2) to gather input from researchers and other staff to inform our vision for an ideal state, identify issues and best practice, and generate ideas for the way forward. In addition a review of the International and national contexts identified common themes and best practice and in the New Zealand situation. This was backed up to visits to a range of national agencies and government departments that might potentially offer useful components of a solution. The CARDIO assessment tool¹ was used by four of the partners to assess data maturity. It is important to note that there are differences between organisations in the complexity and type of data they generate. When DairyNZ, an industry-funded research organisation, is added in to the evaluation we expect that there will be further differences. The assessments paint a picture of relatively low overall data maturity with pockets of good practice within the Hub partners which can be shared and leveraged². More in-depth analysis to understand the relative strengths and best opportunities for collaboration is recommended.