We're all in this together: Readying IRs to support federally funded research

Abstract

In 2023, during the Year of Open Science, the Data Curation Network will host collaborative workshop series to prepare US academic institutional repositories to align with the Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research (DC-DR). Issued by the National Science and Technology Council in May 2022, these guidelines promote a set of consistent attributes for researchers and funding agencies in selecting a suitable repository for sharing and preserving their data, findings and other research outputs.

The release of the DC-DR and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Memo, “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research,” is an opportunity to develop a common set of policies, standards and practices to better connect all types of data repositories. Both are important documents but neither provide a clear direction for repositories to implement the high-level guidance they provide. This is especially important for Institutional Repositories (IRs), which serve many disciplines and may be tasked with demonstrating alignment with different federal agencies’ requirements for federally funded research. IRs are critical infrastructure in supporting researchers who do not yet have disciplinary based repositories to use in meeting federal data sharing requirements. In order to ready US-based academic IRs to demonstrate alignment with the characteristics, the DCN hosted a series of virtual learning opportunities and an in-person workshop.

In this presentation, we will report out on our progress thus far and invite feedback from participants. Presented to the Digital Library Federation 2023 Forum.