Open data "has potential to transform research management" - Research Information

" The Open Data about Research Management report highlights the huge opportunity in giving data about research management an open licence and making it available through publication schemes, particularly in the case of public sector organisation data. This simple change alone could unlock significant amounts of publicly available data relevant to research management by making it universally findable and accessible through existing policy approaches and as part of the administrative process of its collection and management.

The report also notes:

• Simplifying and stabilising data as open data with common, low bureaucracy standards for  metadata, for supporting Application Programming Interface (APIs) developments could help to build a more efficient system by making data interoperable;
• Data about the outputs of research appear to be more openly available than data about research management, probably attributed to drivers for the open science movement;
• There is no universal approach; the landscape is complex, with a mix of discrete and overlapping data sources provided through many different platforms and systems covering particular areas of activity creating inefficiencies and increased costs;
• The reliance on proprietary formats is currently limiting the potential for data to be open and there are readily available routes – such as the open data movement in the wider public sector and infrastructure, such as data.gov.uk, which can help open data about research management for efficiency and innovation...."