The Environmental Data Management Policy Statement

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Improving the accessibility, mobility and reusability of publicly-funded science data will provide many benefits for New Zealand science. However, changing the way we manage scientific data is much more easily said than done, and will require us to think and act in new ways. The Environmental Data Management Policy Statement is MoRST and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (the Foundation's) contribution to starting New Zealand science on this path.

Why are we focussing on environmental data management?

  • New Zealanders can reap significant benefits from being able to find, move and reuse publicly-funded environmental science data. Even small improvements in discoverability or accessibility of environmental data can make a big difference.
  • Parts of New Zealand’s environmental science community have already made considerable progress building the infrastructures and tools needed for data sharing.
  • Vote RS&T, the Government's investment in research, science and technology wholly funds the Nationally Significant Databases holdings of environmental science data. These represent an opportunity for their custodians, MoRST and the Foundation to work closely together and demonstrate what’s involved in mobilising and sharing environmental data.
  • Environmental science data – and the communities that generate and use it - is hugely varied. Initiatives that will encourage people better to manage ‘environmental data’ therefore need to drive towards fundamental good practice rather than focussing on a particular discipline or type of data.

More background on environmental data is here.

How this Statement contributes

This Statement outlines how MoRST and the Foundation (soon to be merged into the Ministry of Science and Innovation) will work, long term, with the whole ‘ecosystem’ of players involved with environmental science data. We developed this Policy Statement collaboratively with key representatives of these players, and we are taking a systems approach to implementing it and improving data management practice. This means acknowledging the complexity of the issues, understanding the multiple drivers and actors involved, and helping other players to take the lead. The Policy Statement’s implementation will do this in three ways:

  • Clearly and consistently articulating the government’s expectations so that Vote RS&T and our policy consistently encourage better data management (Part I of the Statement)
    • This Part I of the Policy Statement will guide MoRST, the Foundation and then the Ministry of Science and Innovation's work over the coming years with Crown research institutes (CRIs) and New Zealand’s other science providers. The aim is that good data management becomes an integral part of CRIs’ business-as-usual, and all new data produced using Vote RS&T funding is well managed.
  • Providing a “one-stop” page for information (Part II of the Statement):
      • essential first steps for good data management;
      • who the experts are who can help; and
      • an outline of the basic data roles, rights and responsibilities of the players in a science data ecosystem.
    • Part II of the Policy Statement will enable people and organisations involved with environmental science data to have at least the same basic understanding of what is involved in improving data management. It will help them connect with the experts and build partnerships for lifting their own data management performance over time.
  • Working through our government and science networks for a cultural shift: elevating data management’s status as a valued activity, and helping attitudes adjust for the “open data” paradigm (Part III of the Statement).
    • Work on Part III of the Policy Statement will help grow the cultures and structures that encourage and reward good data management. This evolution must occur throughout the whole science data ecosystem, so MoRST and the Foundation will be working closely with science organisations but also with the government agencies that are their clients and end-users.

What are MoRST and the Foundation's operating principles?

We are committed to a collaborative journey and we want to encourage the experts to show the way. There will be many opportunities to get involved, and we want to hear from you – please see the contact details below.

MoRST and the Foundation’s operating principles for implementing the Policy Statement are:

  • clear, well-aligned policy settings at the national level,
  • an holistic ‘system approach’ to achieving progress,
  • a commitment to collaboration with the ecosystem's other players, and
  • a long term vision, complemented by pragmatic indicators of progress on the journey.

Where to from here?

  • Work has already begun on Part I of the Statement. MoRST and the Foundation are working closely with CRIs and with other players in the ecosystem to understand how to articulate data management expectations consistently through Vote RS&T and institutional settings.
  • Work is also accelerating on Part II, in collaboration with government information agencies, universities and CRIs. We are building partnerships and making progress through the forthcoming Framework for e-Research Adoption, national science and e-science infrastructure strategy, and events such as the Data Matters workshop.
  • In 2011 MoRST is planning to work with the data communities to build capability and encourage them to lead, following from the Environmental Data Management Practitioners' workshop and New Zealand e-Research Symposium in 2010.
  • MoRST and the Foundation are using ongoing cross-government work to build consensus around the importance of data management, and to collaboratively grow the social and political frameworks that encourage better practice. MoRST is also an active player under the Open Government Information and Data Reuse work-programme.

Uncovering NZ's environmental data wealth

MoRST and the NZ Geospatial Office have recently 'soft launched' a catalogue for discovering publicly-funded environmental and geospatial data - the Environment & Geospatial Catalogue.

It's a "yellow pages" discovery service that helps answer the question: "What data do we already have?" and is part of the goverment-wide development of data infrastructure led by data.govt.nz and DigitalNZ.

The Environment Spatial Catalogue is an iterative development using open-source software and supporting international data standards. MoRST and the NZGO want data custodians to start using the Catalogue and to give feedback so we can improve it.

The Environment Spatial Catalogue

Contact

To find out how you can be involved, please email isabella.cawthorn@morst.govt.nz or phone (04) 917 3066.

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Page updated 20 Jul 2010