Please address each of the questions on the Application Form. If your organisation has a Data Management officer, please ask them for support and advance on institutional guidelines.
Research data can comprise any supporting material which underpins or otherwise enriches the (written) outputs of research, including both quantitative and qualitative data. Common forms of research data include audio recordings or transcriptions of interviews, spreadsheets with survey data, artwork produced by research participants, or photos and videos of research settings and activities.
Important principles that underpin Data Management include:
- Transparency: The evidence that underpins research can be made open for anyone to scrutinise, verify, and attempt to replicate findings.
- Efficiency: Data collection can be funded once, and used many times for a variety of purposes.
- Risk Management: A pro-active approach to data management reduces the risk of inappropriate disclosure of sensitive data, whether commercial or personal.
- Preservation: Lots of data is unique, and can only be captured once. If lost, it cannot be replaced.
Much research data – even sensitive data – can be shared ethically and legally if researchers employ strategies of informed consent, anonymisation and controlling access to data.
Security of data is especially important for research involving human participants. The Creating Safer Space network will offer a training workshop on digital security in June. Please make every effort to attend this workshop.
Data often have a longer lifespan than the research project that creates them. Well organised, well documented, preserved and shared data are invaluable to advance scientific inquiry and to increase opportunities for learning and innovation. Please consider carefully how to ensure long-term storage. Digital research data collected as part of Creating Safer Space projects can normally be stored at Aberystwyth University after the end of the project. Please contact us for further information.