Recent developments and an increase in remote working have highlighted the need to migrate to modern and flexible technologies and now is our opportunity to do so while most research projects are being conducted off-campus.

This is also a great opportunity to review and tidy up any old data that may have accumulated from old projects, archival material or duplications.

Colleagues are already using alternative data storage and archiving solutions, including the research data repository, and Information Services are actively supporting data owners with migrations.

“one of the benefits of using the data repository is just how easy and intuitive it is” – Gary Fisher, PhD student

“I like to be as open as possible and make [my] data accessible” – Prof. Peter Beton, School of Physics and Astronomy

“they provide you with a DOI straight away, as soon as you click upload” – Dr Andrew Moffat, Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute

Director of Governance and Assurance, Jason Carter said: “This is a great opportunity for us all to get our data management in good order. I strongly recommend that we all use this time to review the data we currently hold and make sure we only move what we need. This will really help the University in our GDPR compliance.”

“As O365 offers a much more secure place to hold our data, it will also support researchers in meeting your funders’ terms and conditions. Remember – we shouldn’t keep data just in case it’ll be useful one day, only if we have a good reason to do so.”

While working remotely, Information Services staff are uniquely placed to support the Research community with data migrations and are aiming to migrate as much as possible by the end of May, before it is expected that Research activities resume on Campus. Please can we request that, if not already done, you  contact  your  local Campus IT Support team to review and plan your migration to strategic platforms.

If you would like further information as to the strategic storage options available to you, please refer to either the Data Storage Solutions Sharepoint site, the Digital Research Sharepoint site or discuss with your Digital Research Specialist.

If you have already been in touch with local IT Support and are working through your migration, please disregard this notice.