Introduction to research data management in higher education institutions in a Sub-Saharan African context

Summary

The primary goal of the project is to train staff members (library, research office and related administration) as Research Data Management officers at their respective universities and research centres in Uganda and Tanzania and secondly involve the institute management in the development of a Research Data Management strategy. 
 
Managing research data is internationally recognised as an essential practice to ensure that research data is captured, recorded and preserved which facilitates easy data sharing and reuse over time by the research community at large (researchers, funders, government, industry and lay public). 
 
Research Data Management (RDM) and the so-called FAIR Data Principles, have as fundamental objective to make scientific data freely findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, thus promoting collaboration between researchers, the genesis of new research and the socialisation of knowledge. In addition, RDM services entities can be found within most higher education institutions providing a range of services to support researchers who are creating, managing and sharing their research data. The adoption of these principles for data management in institutions has become what is currently considered as Good Practices of RDM. In the last two decades US and Europe are in the process of integrating RDM in their research culture, while other continents are still in the early days of RDM implementation.
Our experience in the Latin American region demonstrated the strong needs on training when it comes down to good RDM practices. While an initial knowledge on the concept of RDM is present in the Sub-Saharan African context, skills and expertise are similarly lacking in the region. This project will develop training on good RDM practices in Sub-Saharan institutions of higher education, focusing on the East African context with the support of South African universities.

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