New Digital Research Projects or Data Collections

The Sustainable Digital Scholarship (SDS) platform is an ideal place to store research data for new projects. If you want to collaborate with internal or external colleagues, or store and share your digital outputs for long-term access and impact, you can host your data collection on the SDS platform. Whether work is already underway, or your project is still at the planning stage, the SDS service will be happy to help.

The process begins with an initial consultation between researchers and the SDS service, to help us understand the research project and your plans for creating, managing and sharing data. Together, we can explore how the SDS platform may best host your digital research outputs.    

Once the research team is ready to go, the SDS service will help to provide set-up on the SDS platform. This typically includes:  

• Creating your dedicated project space on the SDS platform  
• Defining your project structure
• Defining your custom metadata and keyword tagging process  
• Training your team in how to use the platform  
• Assistance with bulk migration of data  

On average, a research project will typically need between 2-5 days for set-up on the SDS platform and for any troubleshooting, tweaks and migration support. The number of days of support required will be determined by the complexity of both your research data and the structure required on our platform. Projects that require a significant amount of data preparation will need additional support, so it is important that we have as much information from the project team on the size and configuration of the project data as early as possible in our discussions. 

Please get in touch with us before submitting your grant application so that we can assess your requirements. Being involved at an early stage ensures that we can shape our support to meet your needs and fit within your budget. The SDS service can be costed in x5 for inclusion in grant applications. Full details of how to do this are included on the quote document you’ll receive when costing SDS support into your application. 

Once your data have been migrated onto the platform, you'll receive continued support from the SDS service on a helpdesk basis for no additional charge. Your data will continue to be hosted on the platform beyond the funded lifetime of a project at no ongoing cost. If any future batch migrations or significant additional support are required, we will be happy to discuss your needs and provide a new quote. We will work closely with you and your team to keep you up-to-date with progress, and to answer any questions you may have along the way.   

We're happy to discuss projects that do not currently have funding. We can offer advice on potential funding options where appropriate, or depending on your project requirements, direct you to alternative services or other areas of the University for support and advice.