Data Management
Freely-moving data is an essential requirement for contemporary science, along with excellent research infrastructure and e-science services and applications. There is an emerging international consensus that good data management is what makes data discoverable, sharable and reusable.
We are working to help scientists harness the latent value of New Zealand’s publicly-funded science data. This work will help New Zealand science keep pace with the international trend towards e-science, as well as supporting New Zealand’s government-wide programme to open and reuse government data.
What’s in it for NZ?
Well-managed science data are the key to greater efficiency and effectiveness for New Zealand science. Well-managed data can be reused in new data-driven research, delivering high value for money and valuable new insight. e-Research services and applications enable New Zealand scientists to collaborate more effectively and efficiently, both on-shore and with overseas partners.
Moving from the status quo into a new world
Moving New Zealand into an eResearch paradigm of data-sharing and reuse requires shifts in our scientific practice, scientific culture and policy. However New Zealand’s size and internal connectedness give us some real advantages in making these changes. The time is now right to make progress in this area, due to the developments in technology, the accelerating international dominance of eResearch practices, and the global drive to open up and reuse government data.
New Zealand-wide work
Government will work alongside the RS&T community and its stakeholders to develop and implement a comprehensive data policy framework that supports better day-to–day management of science data. The Data Matters workshop was the first of a series of initiatives to encourage different players to improve data management throughout the whole 'ecosystem' of science data.
MoRST is also working closely with the environmental RS&T sector to prototype initiatives that will encourage New Zealanders to manage science data better. MoRST’s prototype is called the Environmental Data Management Policy Statement.
Policy prototyping with the environmental RS&T sector
MoRST is working with key stakeholders and practitioners, constructing frameworks to translate high-level science data management policy into on-the-ground reality. The environmental RS&T sector is a natural candidate for prototyping because:
- New Zealand’s environment research community is leading the way in many aspects of e-science, such as developing infrastructure for collaborative e-research and data-sharing, and internationally-federated data infrastructures.
- Many of contemporary society’s most challenging problems - such as climate change, sustainable resource management and natural hazards – can only be tackled with data-driven environmental science. Further, New Zealand’s economy is more reliant on our natural resources than many other OECD nations.
- Some of New Zealand’s most significant publicly-funded datasets are in the environmental RS&T domain. These include datasets created by individual research projects and local government monitoring, as well as the Nationally Significant Databases.
- Click for more information on MoRST's Environmental Data Management Policy Statement.
Wider context
MoRST’s Data Management work is supporting a range of government-wide and international initiatives, including: