UKRI research data landscape survey

Will survey and assess the body of Research Data held across UKRI funded institutions, building on the methods and outputs of the Software Sustainability Institute’s recent studies of research software.

Using desk research, a survey, and follow up interviews, we aim to generate a preliminary UK research data landscape. This includes what data is being generated, how and where this data is stored, who can access that data and the experiences, barriers and challenges faced by the data creators and those that provide services to store and distribute this data. The outputs from this project will go on to inform the National Federated Compute Services (NFCS) to help them develop a road map as to how UKRI funded compute services might be federated, including data sources and sinks, to best benefit the research community.

Project Outputs

The project started in November 2025 and finishes at the end of July 2026. At the conclusion of this work we anticipate the following outputs:

• A paper, or papers, containing collated information gathered by the survey;
• A report containing key findings and recommendations identified from the survey data;
• A poster for display at relevant workshops and submission to Computing Insight UK (CIUK) containing key findings from the survey and illustrating the diversity and geographical spread of the datasets identified.

Project Staff

• Mario Antonioletti, Researcher, EPCC, University of Edinburgh.
• Clair Barrass, Researcher, EPCC, University of Edinburgh.
• Kieran Leach, Principal Investigator, EPCC, University of Edinburgh.
• Neil Chue Hong, Project Adviser, Software Sustainability Institute, University of Edinburgh.

How you can help

If we are still in the active part of the project (up to the end of July 2026), and if you are either a researcher who curates or generates data as part of your research that could be made available to your fellow researchers, or you provide a data service that hosts such data, then you could help by:

• Filling in our survey.
• Emailing us (m.atonioletti@epcc.ed.ac.uk) telling us what you see as barriers/blockers to:
  • Publishing your data as the data owner/curator.
  • Incorporating your service into a federation as a service owner/provider.
  • The barriers/blockers you think researchers face, as a service owner/provider.
  • Letting us know about any data sharing services that you use.
  • Letting us know about any mailing lists that we could publicise our survey in.