MRC Population Data Archiving and Access Project

There are several important motivations for preserving research data: scientific, historical, economic, and legal. There is also significant demand for the re-use of population-based data in the medical research area, as usage of medical/health studies at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) show. This project investigated opportunities and barriers for the MRC in developing data archiving and access policy. Through case studies and interviews it sought to gain a better understanding of the range and variation of current MRC-funded data creation activities, the existing data management infrastructure and practice in MRC-funded contexts, and the views and opinions of those likely to be most affected by the establishment of such a policy.