Implementation Plan

Storage and display units by B. Fertleman & Sons Ltd., 1973.
Design Council Slide Collection © Design Council

As mentioned in the recent ‘5 months in‘ blog post, the Implementation plan was originally part of the Environmental Assessment report, but has been removed for greater clarity and is outlined below. Each section will be further elaborated upon and is expected to change and adapt as we continue to explore, create, and develop our model for the visual arts.

1. Working groups
To continue to build on relationships established through the environmental assessment phase, working groups will be established at each institution to inform and support the creation of policies and technical infrastructure for managing research data. Stakeholders will include: IT, Research Office, Researchers, Library staff, FOI staff. It was particularly interesting to hear at the recent JISCMRD event on policies (12th-13th March, Leeds) that other institutions from the first round of JISCMRD funding had found the role of working groups beneficial on an ongoing basis.

2. Institutional Research Data Management (RDM) Policies
The creation of four high-level aspirational institutional RDM policies suitable for the visual arts. Kaptur will reference the Digital Curation Centre Research Data Policy Briefing Document (PDF), the University of Edinburgh RDM policy (PDF), and existing complementary policies at the partner institutions such as Guides to Good Research, Records Management, Data Protection, Research Ethics, and Freedom of Information (FOI). A discussion paper will be produced leading to draft policies which will be revised according to feedback.

3. Technical infrastructure
A Technical Analysis report is in progress and expected by the end of April. In the meantime, findings from the Environmental Assessment report suggest a need for a secure, UK-hosted (or locally hosted) cloud storage system due to the interviewee’s needs to access their research data from home as well as work locations.

For example, one of the interviewees suggested it would be helpful if the institution would consider setting up something like a “cloud” storage facility which is synchronised with the researchers’ laptops and offers a “kind of active directory structure” (Designer-Researcher, Institution D).

4. Training/support
There is a need for awareness-raising of RDM using suitable terminology and support for researchers and repository staff. We are seeking to re-use existing materials where possible, e.g. the Project CAiRO Managing Creative Arts Research Data (MCARD) training module.

One of the findings from the Environmental Assessment report was that interviewees recommended the library positively across all four institutions. We would seek to involve the library in this area of the project, although it should be noted that the original project plan was aimed more directly at dealing with visual arts researchers themselves rather than training other staff.

When interviewees were asked about training and support that the institution could provide, the idea of seeing how others archive their research data was particularly appealing:

“Like somebody opening their wardrobe and saying how you organise your clothes [...] I love that, that kind of thing.”

(Artist-researcher I, Institution A)

Another interviewee mentioned that they would like more information on how to archive digital materials; particularly working online and collating information from different websites and digital resources (Art Historian, Institution D).

5. Business Cost and Sustainability Plans
This is to ensure that the work carried out by Kaptur is maintained at the institutions after the lifetime of the project; benefits will be measured using Keeping Research Data Safe (KRDS) toolkit (previous blog post on KRDS).