Elevating research data management maturity at Waipapa Taumata Rau

In 2021, the University published its strategic plan Taumata Teitei, in which we voiced our aspiration to become a Māori data sovereignty organisation. That same year we published a stocktake report defining the current state of Research Data Management (RDM) maturity within the University and presented a series of recommendations seeking to uplift that maturity.

In this talk we present an outline of the completed and in-flight activities increasing our RDM maturity. Completed activities include releasing a research data management policy to provide guidance for our researchers and the appointing a Poutiaki Rangahau Māori to guide our journey towards becoming a Māori data sovereignty organisation. Our in-flight activities include: the development of a Secure Research Environment for analysing sensitive research data; the provision of a machine-actionable data management planning tool; and the interconnection of our research entities (people, projects, organisations, outputs and instruments) via a networks of persistent identifiers.