Building a Culture of Data Sharing: Policy Design and Implementation for Research Data Management in Development Research

Abstract

2 Neylon C management and sharing policies create where a Data Management Plan is required at grant submission but then not further utilised is at best neutral and likely counter productive in supporting change in researcher culture. As expected, there are signi?cant bottlenecks within research institutions and for grantees in e?ectively sharing data including a lack of resources and expertise. However, a core ?nding is that many of the bottlenecks for change relate to structural issues at the funder level. Speci?cally, the expectation that policy initiatives are implemented, monitored, and evaluated by Program O?cers who are the main point of contact for projects. The single most productive act to enhance policy implementation may be to empower and support Program O?cers. This could be achieved through training and support of individual POs, through the creation of a group of internal experts who can support others, or via provision of external support, for instance by expanding the services provided by the pilot project into an ongoing support mechanism for both internal sta? and grantees. Other signi?cant ?ndings include: the importance of language barriers and the way in which assumptions of English language in materials, resources, services and systems permeate the entire system; that data infrastructures are poorly served by current funding arrangements and tools, particularly where they are obliged to seek continuing funding through project grants. There are also fundamental questions raised by the status of digital objects as "data". The concept of data is part of a western scienti?c discourse which may be both incompatible with other cultures, particularly indigenous knowledge systems. More importantly that discourse may be incompatible with values-based approaches that seek to respect indigenous knowledge through a commitment to retaining context. With the possible exception of the last ?nding, none of these issues are exclusive to development research. The Development Research context surfaces them more strongly through its greater diversity of goals and contexts. In many ways this project illustrates not that Development Research has particular special needs, but that it is a site that surfaces issues in policy design and implementation deserving of more consideration across the research enterprise.