An important activity of the African Open Science (incl. Open Data) Platform Project is to conduct an environmental scan of all data related activities/initiatives.  This survey seeks to gather information about data activities and initiatives for this purpose.

In scope are activities/initiatives on the African continent which may be doing (or planning to do) any of the following: developing research data strategies, designing and promoting open research data policies, managing data repositories (whether national, international or institutional/discipline specific), undertaking data management, training and capacity building in data skills, advancing data intensive science.

We are primarily concerned with activities that relate to 'research data': that is data created by research activities or for the purposes of research.  For the purpose of this survey, 'research' refers to all activities that comprise the research lifecycle: policy, ethics, data curation (incl. planning, management, preservation), data collection, data sharing, publishing of research results. Open government data and operational data collected by agencies that monitor the environment or society may also be used for research and so are in scope.  However, we are particular interested in activities that relate to data created for and by research activities.

This is a lightweight survey designed quickly to help us understand the landscape of existing or emerging initiatives.  It consists of 18 straightforward questions and should only take a few minutes to complete.  We request, however, that to inform us of more than one data initiative you complete the form multiple times. This applies to initiatives for which the information is openly accessible (in other words no login is required to access the information), or partially open.

Data collected will be shared with survey participants where permission is granted, and all participants will be kept up to date with regard to project developments, should you wish to receive communication in this regard (please see last question). Privacy: Personal details (name, email) will not be disclosed to any third party, and will be used for the purposes of this project only.

Please complete this survey no later than 31 January 2017. For inquiries, please contact: ina@assaf.org.za 

The project is funded by the South African Department of Science and Technology, and coordinated by ICSU-CODATA. The project is managed by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).