ARDC Launches Phase 2 of the Data Retention Project: Significant National Data Collections

The Australian Research Data Commons’ (ARDC) Data Retention project aims to increase the impact of underpinning infrastructures that store important data collections.

The demand for data storage continues to grow exponentially. There is a very real risk of the situation becoming hard to manage and this could lead to significant data loss. Without insight into the scale, demand and characteristics of national data storage capacity and the data collections they manage, it is near impossible to design realistic investment strategies.

The Data Retention project is a strategic investment in the national research sector to collect meaningful and measurable characteristics of the national data storage infrastructure and in doing so build a storage infrastructure investment strategy that can scale and respond to demand. This investment is a three-year partnership with infrastructure providers who manage data content at scale.

Partnerships in the Data Retention project will make use of international and contemporary research data management practices to enrich data collections with controlled and consistent structural metadata to drive the FAIR data principles, particularly the findability, accessibility and reusability of data collections.

Expressions of Interest for Phase 2 of the Data Retention Project were invited from universities and NCRIS capabilities that can demonstrate important data collections in their custody, namely they are:

• national in scope
• collaborative in nature
• contribute to the wider research data infrastructure or
• possess enduring value to the research sector.

A robust and sustainable national data storage capability will be essential in providing the Australian research sector a competitive advantage and maximise the impact of NCRIS investments.

For more detail about the project visit our project page and contact us if you have any questions.