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Data Futures readiness survey

Thank you to all who participated and provided us with such detailed, informed feedback on the readiness survey – we received 138 responses, providing us with a comprehensive range of vital feedback to the programme.

We wanted to understand how providers are preparing for in-year collection, and how they want to be informed and updated. Data Futures is a collaborative process, and alongside the participation of our Alpha stakeholder group, we rely on feedback to our publications and consultations to update and adapt our plans and output.

By listening to your feedback we are able to address queries now as we head into the Alpha pilot and towards implementation and transition.

Data Futures is a collaborative process; we rely on feedback to update and adapt our plans and output.

Please be aware, the survey was never intended as a benchmarking tool between organisations and will not be used as such; we do not intend to publish all of the responses. The survey was an opportunity to share your queries and raise any concerns with us, and we will address any at an individual level, as required.

In the following two sections we wanted to share some of the general feedback we've recieved from providers and explain what we'll be doing to respond to this.

Programme activity underway:

  • Over 70 percent have discussed Data Futures internally with their teams: we are working on a Data Futures presentation toolkit and executive summary for practitioners to use or adapt for in-house presentations and meetings and this will be available soon.

  • Nearly 95 percent noted they are looking to improve their data governance and curation of organisational data: the collection governance consultation is seeking a consensual approach to assessing the burden of HE data collections and to approve a model for data governance and implementation: consultation has now closed. 

Common survey themes addressed by the upcoming Detailed Design output:

The Detailed Design phase concludes at the end of August and this will lead to the publication of technical outputs mid-end September. These outputs will help address the following concerns raised during the survey:

  • More information and detail required to prepare and respond.
  • Make language and content accessible for non-technical staff, where possible.
  • Provide timely, advance communication of upcoming publications or outputs.
  • Support practitioners communicating about the Data Futures programme with internal teams, with particular emphasis on reaching senior leadership teams.

Our ongoing commitments:

  • The Alpha Pilot phase will launch January 2018 and during this period we will be collecting practical case studies and user journeys.
  • We continue to engage with software suppliers, senior stakeholders, and membership organisations and will continue to listen to your feedback and respond to queries.
  • Our Data Futures JiscMail group provides updates on milestones and project outputs, and we have recently launched an AP-specific JiscMail group to share experiences and provide support and suggestions: the two AP Alpha stakeholders are available on the AP JiscMail group, to escalate concerns or queries as needed.

We will be presenting the detailed survey results to the Data Futures Programme Board for discussion in September and we thank you again for your input to this stage of the programme.

Join the Data Futures JiscMail group for milestones and programme updates: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/data-futures.

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Melanie Ross

Communication Officer