National Academies Establish Board on Research Data and Information through National Research Council's Policy and Global Affairs Division
Federal government agencies make public investments of many billions of dollars each year in producing or externally funding the generation of huge and diverse data streams as inputs into the research enterprise. They also produce or fund the creation of ever-increasing volumes of scientific information?both peer-reviewed and "gray" literature?that embodies the results of much of the research output. As the nation's stewards or funders of these digital research assets, they have a major stake in continually improving their management, policies, and utilization.
Despite the large expenditures on producing research data and information, the investments and policies for managing, preserving, disseminating, and reusing the data and information resources are lagging and are generally perceived to be inadequate. Many unresolved issues arise at different levels of the research system in this regard, affecting established research strategies and priorities. They involve not just scientific and technical elements, but institutional, economic, legal, and socio-cultural aspects. The most pervasive dysfunctions occur at the interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, and international boundaries, and in public-private partnerships. The problems in successfully managing and using digital knowledge resources can have significant negative effects, such as structural inefficiencies and lost opportunity costs for our national research and innovation systems, our economic competitiveness, and the greater social welfare.
Because research data and information are of great importance to the progress of science and the nation's competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy, these issues need to be well understood by the various stakeholders in our nation's research enterprise. Those who have a stake in this include not only the research communities in government, academia and industry, but also research policymakers and managers in the Administration and Congress, and ultimately the public that both support these activities and the benefit from their improved effectiveness. Acting through the National Research Council (NRC), the new Board on Research Data and Information will establish an interdisciplinary advisory mechanism and focal point for bringing greater understanding and visibility to these issues, for adding value to the National Science Foundation's and other sponsors' objectives and priorities in these areas, and for helping to improve returns on the federal agencies' investments in a time of increasingly constrained budgets.
The Board on Research Data and Information will maintain surveillance of the field and propose initiatives that might be undertaken at the NRC, targeted at challenges of national and international significance of particular interest to the board's sponsors. The Board will engage in planning, program development, and administrative oversight of projects launched under its auspices, dealing with the management, policy, and use of digital data and information for science and the broader society. As part of its activities in the first year, it will organize and hold a national symposium and workshop on The Future of Open Knowledge Environments in the Digital Age and an international symposium on Designing Microbial Research Commons.
(BRDI) is to improve the stewardship, policy, and use of digital data and information for science and the broader society. The BRDI maintains surveillance of the field and proposes initiatives that might be undertaken at the National Research Council (NRC), targeted at challenges of national and international significance of particular interest to the Board's sponsors, including the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Board engages in planning, program development, and administrative oversight of projects launched under its auspices, and is responsible for a program of studies and other activities at the NRC related to research data and information. During this initial 24-month period of performance, BRDI pursued the following tasks within its primary mission areas: 1. Addressed emerging issues in the management, policy, and use of research data and information at the national and international levels. 2. Through projects and reports of the NRC, provided independent and objective information concerning research data and information activities and interests of its sponsors. 3. Encouraged and facilitated collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and nations with regard to common interests in research data and information activities. 4. Monitored, assessed, and contributed to the development of U.S. government and research community positions on research data and information programs and policies. 5. Initiated or responded to requests for consensus studies, workshops, conferences, and other activities within the Board’s mission, and provided oversight for the activities performed under the Board’s auspices. 6. Broadly disseminated and communicated the results of the Board’s activities to its stakeholders and to the general public. The Board also served as the U.S. National Committee for CODATA. The following activities were organized under and overseen by the Board and its staff during the project's initial period of performance (all meetings were held in Washington, DC except as otherwise indicated): + First BRDI Meeting and Public Symposium on Author Deposit Mandates for Federal Research Grantees (01/09). + Third U.S.-China Roundtable on Scientific Data Cooperation (Qingdao, 03/09 and ongoing). + Symposium on Common-Use Licensing of Scientific Data and Information (Beijing and Taipei, 03/09). + The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies (report published, 07/09). + Second BRDI Meeting and Public Symposium on Scientific Data for Evidence Based Policy and Decision Making (09/09). + International Symposium on Designing the Microbial Research Commons: New Strategies for Accessing, Managing, and Using Essential Public Knowledge Assets (10/09). + Symposium on the Data Sharing Plans for GEOSS and on the Benefits of Data Sharing in Science (11/09). + Fourth U.S.-China Roundtable on Scientific Data Cooperation (in Irvine, CA, 03/10 and ongoing). + Third BRDI Meeting and Public Symposium on the Changing Role of Libraries in Supporting Scientific Data Activities (06/10). We also actively planned the following activities and projects for the half-year following the end of this performance period: + CODATA Conference (Cape Town, South Africa 10/10). + Fourth BRDI Meeting and Public Symposium on the Value of Shared Access and Reuse of Publicly Funded Scientific Data (12/10). + National Symposium and Workshop on the Future of Scientific Knowledge Discovery in Open Networked Environments (03/11). + Symposium on the Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries (04/11). Finally, we launched a website for the Board, which is used for outreach to the sponsors, the research community, and the general public. It is available at: www.nas.edu/brdi.
