How can the DCC help you?

Funding bodies and institutions now expect all researchers, and especially Principal Investigators (PIs), to take a more active role in curation. DCC helps you understand what digital curation means, as well as 'Who does what' - the roles involved in curation. We can direct you to the data policies relevant to you, and guide you through a Data Management Plan for your project.

DCC can help your research group or department get more impact from its research assets by developing your knowledge and skills. We help you find courses and offer several levels of training. DCC Roadshow events will help you connect with others involved locally.You can also learn from others’ views and experiences through our Research Data Management Forum events, connect online through our Blog and News pages, or the JISC Research Data Management list, and pick up expertise through the DCC Associates list. For in-depth treatment of new developments we offer the International Journal of Digital Curation and the International Digital Curation Conference.

Responsible for implementing data policies, guidelines or infrastructure for a repository or data centre service, whether for your institution, a broader collaboration or subject-based data centre, we can help you track data policies, and communicate the big picture of how curation roles fit together.

Whether your research interest is in developing technologies, standards and services to support digital research, or in understanding the social shaping of data infrastructures; DCC can help you monitor the emerging key issues and trends by synthesising recent projects and reports. The Curation Reference Manual is a peer-reviewed outlet providing you with state-of-the-art reports on key curation themes.

We can help you track the emerging significance of data curation to shape your HEI’s policies and codes of practice for research, to engage your research communities and other stakeholders, and to help coordinate professional development and research assessments. DCC points you to relevant information on UK data policies to help you formulate guidelines for research integrity and responsible conduct in your institution. We condense funding body data policies and provide an overview of the curation roles and lifecycle of curation activities required to sustain compliance with these.

Responsible for developing policy guidelines and standards for UK research infrastructure, DCC helps you fulfil your outreach objectives by delivering your message to a national and international audience. We work across disciplinary and institutional boundaries, reaching the communities engaged with digital research issues and supporting their needs for advice. Our Data Management Planning tool, for example, helps researchers and data managers work with the relevant funding body guidelines at the proposal stage… and beyond that to safeguard the investment in research assets throughout the research lifecycle.

If your business is to provide resources to the higher education community for managing and adding value to research data, DCC can help put them to the test of wider opinion. We provide a Tools Catalogue that the curation community uses to access and review everything from policy guides to preservation tools. DCC also helps you track emerging trends through our conference (International Digital Curation Conference) and other events and publications.

The DCC has been funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), through its Universities Modernisation Fund (UMF), to provide intensive, tailored support to increase research data management capability among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). We will work closely with 18 HEIs between Summer 2011 and Spring 2013, providing a range of support and services. Each engagement will be tailored to the specific needs and priorities of the institution.