Archiving for the Future

Abstract

The principles of good scientific practices in the governance of publicly funded research programmes are receiving increased attention in view of the emerging expectations that public investments are rapidly turned into innovations and tangible economic or social benefits for the citizens. Within this overall context, management of publicly funded research data is an issue being debated at the national and international levels by institutional, professional and academic organizations; specifically, preservation and archive as well as open access and retrieval of research data are seen in the remit of good scientific and engineering practices underpinning professional ethics in the promotion and sharing of knowledge for the benefit of stakeholders and of the society at large. <br><br> This paper describes the experience accrued at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in the management of experimental data acquired in the framework of the LOBI reactor safety research project carried out in the frame of a joint undertaking between the European Commission and the former Bundesminister für Forschung und Technologie of Germany. Specific emphasis is placed on the preservation of the digital data vis-à-vis the progressive obsolescence and/or evolution of storage media and on the exploitation of emerging information technologies in order to provide user-friendly access and, as appropriate, sharing of the data. Since in the life cycle of a project long-term use of the data is generally not properly factored in project planning and budgeting, the opportunity to entrust dedicated national or international archival systems long term preservation and dissemination of valuable research data is prospected.