Research Data Management Technical Infrastructure: A Review of Options for Development at the University of Sheffield

This report reviews the options available for the development of a technical infrastructure to support research data management (RDM) at the University of Sheffield. RDM, its situation within academic research and recent drivers towards change are defined. The processes involved in RDM and the elements of the supporting technical infrastructure are examined. The local context, of RDM technical infrastructure at the University of Sheffield and collaborating institutions, is explored. The report briefly describes the eighty most commonly used components of RDM technical infrastructure at UK HEIs. The report describes evaluations, reviews and comparisons of these components, gives examples of established RDM services and highlights the recent projects at UK HEIs which were involved in developing these services. This report focuses on the outcomes of projects at UK HEIs funded by the JISC ‘Managing Research Data’ programmes 2009-11 and 2011-2013. Generally the infrastructure architectures examined have been developed in response to the functional requirements derived from researcher workflows. Finally, recommendations for suitable technical infrastructure components are proposed. This is an updated version (2.4) of the document at http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1092561