Your views on capability and capacity building for a national data research infrastructure

This workshop was on the topic of ‘Capability and Capacity Building’ and was attended by nearly 40 participants from across academia, research infrastructure services and the public.

The theme of Capability and Capacity Building is broad, covering not only training and skills development, but also career development, recruitment and retention. In our initial Landscape Review (October 2021) we had heard a wide range of views and concerns in these areas from across both the research community and infrastructure providers. Some of these challenges are outside of the direct scope of the DARE UK programme but are still critical to the development of a world class digital infrastructure for research on sensitive data.

In the workshop, we explored the key findings from the Landscape Review and the first draft thoughts on recommendations for future DARE UK activity, as well as for work more broadly across UK Research and Innovation. There was excellent discussion in the breakout sessions and this certainly brought more clarity to the need for more structured career roles and development, and highlighted both current and developing areas of skills shortage. The input we received will be invaluable as we refine our recommendations.

Our draft recommendations, and your thoughts and feedback, are captured in the slide deck linked below. If you missed the workshop, you can also view the presentations and a recap of breakout room discussions in the recording below.

View the draft recommendations and your feedback

Watch the event recording:

If you haven’t already, please sign up to attend our upcoming workshop on Digital Research Infrastructure. Taking place on Thursday 24 March, the workshop will explore how the distributed digital systems that hold and provide access to sensitive data could work in a more joined-up way, to support research at scale for public good.