Wherefore Art Thou, Research Sector Transparency / Research Transparency Sector Board?

On June 28th, 2012, the open data policy white paper Unleashing the Potential was published by the Cabinet Office. In the section on “Opening Up Access to Research”, one particular paragraph runs as follows:

2.66 To further develop government policy on access to research, we are also establishing a Research Transparency Sector Board, chaired by the Minister for Universities and Science, which will consider ways in which transparency in the area of research can be a driver for innovation. Recognising that research data is different to other PSI [Public Sector Information, presumably? – ed.], the Board will consider how to implement transparency measures relating to research in a manner which protects the integrity of the research and associated intellectual property, while ensuring access to research for those SME entrepreneurs vital for driving growth. This will help to realise the full benefits for society as a whole. The Research Transparency Sector Board will consist of government departments, funding agencies and representatives from universities and other stakeholders, and among the first of its tasks will be to consider how to act on the recommendations of the Royal Society report.

The announcement of the board (referred to as the Research Sector Transparency Board – which makes more sense…) was welcomed by the Royal Society in a guest blog post on the data.gov.uk website dated 27th June 2012 (the day before the embargo lifted? I’m not sure when the blog post actually became public): An intelligently open enterprise.

The minutes of a Regular meeting of the ICO Higher Education sector panel on FOI and DP (24.09.2012) dated 16/10/12 notes the following:

Research data caused much concern. VA reminded delegates that she does need input from Research Councils and BIS in this area, as stated in the draft DD [HE definition document]. Definitions of “publicly funded” and “key outputs” may need clarification. It was noted that the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Panel had to produce this type of data to an agreed timetable by 2015. It was also mentioned that the Open Data White Paper announced the formation of a new Research Sector Transparency Board and it was suggested that HEI research data could be linked to that format – it is not yet ready for use but might be worth noting in the new DD that this is a future aim.

Correspondence from House of Lords European Union Select Committee includes a letter from David Willetts MP dated 25 October 2012 that refers to his anticipated chairing of the Board:

On the question of Open Access (OA), I was pleased to note your expressed support for Open Data (OD) for which the UK is again identified as a good example. We have made excellent progress through the Finch Report on expanded access to research publications and the Government’s response to it. OD is at a relatively early stage. Some initiatives are already in train under Government’s Transparency Agenda, as detailed in the Cabinet Office White Paper, Open Data: Unleashing the Potential. This includes establishment of the Research Sector Transparency Board, which I shall be chairing. The Board will want to examine the complex issues around increasing the sharing of research data. The Research Councils’ published Open Access policy makes appropriate reference to research data, and the recent Royal Society report has informed the discussion, but work is needed on deciding further measures and implementing these appropriately, with the right terms and conditions and timing for disclosure.
…
We cannot be complacent and we will want to consider how best to monitor the take-up of Gold OA both here in the UK and overseas. The HEFCE-funded Joint Infrastructure Systems Committee (JISC), OAIG, and the Research Innovation Network (RIN) are already active in monitoring OA trends generally. HEFCE also envisages a possible role for JISC in monitoring the effectiveness – and effects – of Government OA policy. I expect that the Research Sector Transparency Board will also take an interest in OA policy implementation.

The 2012 BIS Annual Innovation Report from November 2012 referred to the announcement of the Board, making me wonder how many other Annual Reports celebrate the announcement of vapourwareentities?

10.3 Open data and transparency
We have continued to work to harness the potential and collaborative opportunities offered by wider use of open data.

In June 2012 the Government announced in its Open Data White Paper that we would set up a Research Sector Transparency Board. The Board will consider how transparency in research can be a driver for innovation and discovery while furthering the UK’s recognised excellence in science. It will advise Government transparency issues relating to the national research effort, and improved access for small and medium businesses to the research base. Amongst its first tasks will be to consider and address the recommendations of the Royal Society report, Science as an Open Enterprise, into the sharing and disclosing of research data.

We also established the Administrative Data Taskforce, in December 2011. It will publish proposals for new mechanisms and collaborative agreements to enable and promote the wider use of administrative data for research and policy purposes, before the end of the year.

(I’m not sure I’d picked up on the Administrative Data Taskforce before? It reported in December 2012: The UK Administrative Data Research Network: Improving Access for Research and Policy. This report looks like it could be worth reading – a quick skim reveals several sections on legal and ethical issues related to linking administrative data to other dataset.)

A Hansard reported Written Answer to the House of Lords from 12 Dec 2012 (Column WA241) from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Lord Marland) on questions referring to open access to research data records:

Any further opening up of access to data, in the context of the wider open data agenda, would be the subject of future discussions with the research councils and other parties including the Data Strategy Board and representative university bodies. These policy issues would also be considered as appropriate by the Research Sector Transparency Board which is chaired by David Willetts. There are no proposals to change the research councils’ policy on access to data at this time.

The Russell Group response to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry on open access publishing, dated 24 January 2013, makes the following reference to the board:

1.3 The Russell Group has been monitoring the development of open access (OA) policy for some time. We followed the ‘Finch Review’ and Royal Society work on science as an open enterprise with interest and the Russell Group is now represented on the Research Sector Transparency Board which will be covering OA, open data and other issues over the coming year. We have recently had a number of meetings with Research Councils UK (RCUK) to discuss implementation of OA policy.

This suggests that membership of the board has been decided upon, at least partially?

A HEFCE letter on Open access and submissions to the REF post-2014 dated 25/2/13 refers to the board in the following terms:

25. With the Research Councils and the Research Transparency Sector Board, we are giving consideration to the issues involved in increasing access to research data. We are committed to working in dialogue with the sector to develop fair and balanced mechanisms to achieve this aim.

Again, this suggests that the Board has been convened.

So I wonder:

• What is tha actual name of the board – Research Transparency Sector Board or Research Sector Transparency Board ;-)? (Other sectors have Transparency Boards….)
• What is the membership of the board and has it convened yet?
• What are the terms of reference for the board?
• If it has convened, where are the minutes?

By the by, I note the emergence of the Research Councils UK – Gateway to Research, which provides a single point of access to “[k]ey data from the seven UK Research Councils in one location.”

This site appears to collate information about research grants, grantees, and publications by grant, across the Research Councils (I’m not sure if an #opendata dump is available though, which would mean I don’t need to scrape across all the sites using Scraperwiki any more?!;-)

PS it seems a tweet about the first meeting appeared whilst I was writing this post:

First meeting of the Research Sector Transparency Board today and all agree that open data are a public good – but that issue is complicated

— adam tickell (@adamtickell) February 26, 2013

No linkage that I can see yet, though?