Call for Institutions to Pilot Development of Scalable Data-Management Infrastructure

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the California Digital Library (CDL) are seeking four institutional teams to pilot the integration or creation of prototypes and possible workflows for machine-actionable data management and sharing plans (maDMSPs). The pilot project will run January–December 2024. This project is funded by an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant. Additional information about the project is on our project webpage.

Interested organizations should submit their expression of interest here.

Machine-actionable data management and sharing plans are structured, machine-readable documents that allow for dynamic reporting on the intentions and outcomes of a research project, enabling streamlined information exchange across relevant parties and systems. These plans go beyond traditional static document-based DMSPs, and contain an inventory of key metadata about a project and its outputs (not just datasets), with a change history that stakeholders can query for information over the lifetime of the research. Implementing maDMSPs can be a key piece of establishing interconnected, automated systems for research data management and compliance.

This pilot provides an exciting opportunity for selected institutions to help shape the development of maDMSPs and gain valuable early experience with new approaches to enable more automated and connected research data management.

By agreeing to be part of this pilot program, institutions will:

• Define a set of success measures for institutional pilot projects of maDMSPs at their organization.
• Gather a sample set of data management plans from funded research projects to use as test cases for connecting plans with associated datasets and other research outputs.
• Provide engaged feedback on the maDMSP features and uses at their organization.
• Conduct ongoing work to meet the locally defined success measures.
• Attend and actively participate in bimonthly project meetings.
• Participate in project communication, outreach, and engagement (such as conference panels, webinars, reports and articles, etc.).
• Coordinate and manage one program team site visit.

Pilot projects should include a team of three to five people representing institutional stakeholders who will work together to test or prototype an institutional solution to support public access to research data leveraging the maDMSP. Teams may include representatives from the offices of several institutional stakeholders, such as the research office, library, information technology, institutional review board (IRB), high-performance computing units, and/or faculty.

Examples of possible pilot projects include, but are not limited to:

• Modeling notification workflows that could be automated through maDMSPs to alert stakeholders to key events over the data life cycle. Example use cases include alerts around sensitive data, managing big data, enabling data transfer, and linking datasets to published outputs.
• Building prototype integrations connecting maDMSPs with existing research information management systems (RIMS) or researcher profile systems. For example, automatically updating and exchanging key metadata between maDMSPs and other research systems.
• Engaging academic or administrative departments to test the utility of maDMPs for their research workflows and data management needs. Departmental testing would provide feedback to inform the optimization of maDMSP systems.
• Demonstrating and improving communication workflows between key campus units involved in research data management using maDMSPs as a connecting platform. Example stakeholders include the library, research office, IT/security, IRB, research computing, and high-performance computing units.

Pilot institutions will:

• Gain early access to new maDMSP features and functionality.
• Influence technical development and workflow processes of the maDMSP platform.
• Be reimbursed for up to $6,000 per institution to attend conferences or workshops to communicate pilot project goals or outcomes.

The ARL/CDL project team will produce all required reporting to IMLS; there are no federal grant reporting requirements for pilot partners.

We are seeking a range of institutions that are diverse in size, research activity, and level of development of services and infrastructure for research data management and sharing. Even if your institution has just begun planning for research data management and sharing, we invite you to apply.

Applications will remain open until Friday, November 10, 2023, and we anticipate notifying applicants by the end of November.

If you are interested in learning more, you are invited to register to attend an optional, informational webinar on Thursday, November 2, at 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT.

Please direct any questions to Cynthia Hudson Vitale cvitale@arl.org or Maria Praetzellis maria.praetzellis@ucop.edu.