Exploring the opportunities and challenges of implementing open research strategies within development institutions

"Open research data is free to use, modify, and share for any purpose by anyone. The significance of primary data gathered in research projects across domains is its high potential for not only academic re-use, but its value beyond academic purposes, particularly for governments, the private sector, and civil society.

More importantly, the availability of this data provides an ideal opportunity to test the key premise underlying open research data - that when it is made publicly accessible in easily reusable formats, it can foster new knowledge and discovery, and encourage collaboration among researchers and organizations.

Momentum towards open access has been growing as numerous funding agencies implement open access policies. However, research funding organizations need to be aware of and have an understanding of the opportunities and challenges of open research data policies. For example, realistic and cost-effective strategies for funded researchers to collect, manage, and store the various types of data resulting from their research are unclear. Furthermore, publishing open research data requires skillsets that researchers may have yet to develop. Finally, intellectual property rights and privacy are significant concerns that need to be addressed.

This project will develop a tested set of policy and best practice implementation guidelines by conducting open data pilot case studies...."