Matthew Woollard, Director of the UK Data Service discusses the impact and benefit of the UK Data Service, focusing on its support for the development of international data services and also its influence in key areas of data access policy development.
Welcome to the new UK Data Service Impact Blog. By way of introduction I want explain that the main purpose of this blog is to demonstrate the impact and benefit of the Service. It will include posts on both the use and the consequences of use of data of which we are the custodians, the impact of the Service itself in widening access to data and will act as a forum where we can share our experience and promote best practice in data service infrastructure.
As an opening post I wish to focus on two very rcs data malaysia recent activities that demonstrate the influence of the Service in different contexts. The first was a two-day workshop which was held at the UK Data Archive (part of the UK Data Service) at the University of Essex at the beginning of January on behalf of our funders, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and their Indian equivalent, the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICCSR). The ICSSR have a desire to set up an organisation which has similar aims and objectives to the UK Data Service, but serving the research community in India. The Service and the ICSSR had some preliminary conversations in 2013 and their planning has now moved forward considerably, so it was about time that we discussed our operations in finer detail so that the best of these could be transferred and legacy problems could be pre-empted. Two days of detailed discussion, with introductions from both research councils proved highly productive and our colleagues are re-examining their implementation plan. This type of impact is often hidden, especially as the consequences occur so long after the event.