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Advanced Research Computing

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Research Data Platforms

ARC offers a growing suite of research data platforms, including storage for current projects and a long-term repository, to support effective data management from planning to re-use.

Overview

We help researchers comply with UCL and funding bodies' policies regarding the management of research data. These include stipulations that access to data should be controlled, that data is appropriately stored, adequately described, preserved as required, and that publicly funded research data can be made accessible to the widest possible audience beyond the lifetime of the project. One of our key objectives is to help promote UCL researchers and their work to a global audience. This means supporting free and open access to research outputs, providing information about research activity and highlighting the global impact of this work.

The services we provide are;

  • The Research Data Storage Service (RDSS)
    This service is available for UCL research staff and their collaborators. It provides controlled access to research data storage, potentially at a very large scale. It is a managed service based on dedicated, resilient hardware which is backed up to tape on a daily basis. Contextual data about the project is captured to facilitate future curation and data management. The RDSS is available for use both by externally funded projects and internal ‘unfunded’ research.

  • The UCL Research Data Repository (RDR)
    The Repository enables the long-term preservation of selected data beyond the lifetime of an active research project. It also acts as a data publication platform, enabling the citation and future re-use of datasets created by UCL staff. 

  • Electronic Research Notebook (ERN)
    The ERN platform, provided by RSpace, is already a feature-complete system which provides a means to edit and manage notes and data relating to your research. It is intended not only as an alternative to traditional paper lab notebooks, but as a wide-ranging solution for researchers who wish to gather their notes and related files in a single system where they can collaborate and selectively share their work with others in their team.

  • Globus
    Globus enables fast, secure, transfers of research data between institutions. It is particularly useful when transferring large files and high volumes of data, ensuring that performance is optimized and transfers monitored.

  • Data Stewardship
    Being part of the Research Data Group, the Data stewards are perfectly suited to integrate UCL's data services within the software systems built for academic research. They provide consultancy on various levels of data-related problems from data engineering and wrangling to designing distributed data systems.

We are developing additional services to enable the effective management of research data throughout the research lifecycle, from the planning phase, through data gathering and analysis, to the long-term curation and possible re-use of data. Take a look at what we are working on here.

Features

Our services provide:

  • Enterprise grade data storage without the burden of hardware maintenance
  • Multi-petabyte storage capacity
  • Rapid access to data over UCL's high-speed network infrastructure
  • A storage facility mirrored across two sites, ensuring a high level of resilience
  • Support for research workflows encompassing data storage and computational resources
  • Straightforward interfaces that allow you to administer your storage or deposit datasets yourself (with support if requested)
  • A service for looking after datasets after your project comes to an end, so that you don’t have to
  • Digital object identifiers, enabling data to be cited and credit to be received for its impact
  • Advice and guidance on efficient and effective data storage
  • Long-term sustainability
     

Contact

Please get in touch with the Research Data Services team at researchdata-support@ucl.ac.uk.