Data management planning in engineering design and manufacturing research

There is a growing interest in maximizing the value of research data through their sharing and re-use. This desire is hampered by the prevailing culture in data management during the research activity which largely ignores the potential for re-use, and by a lack of understanding of the character of research data and of the barriers to and opportunities for their re-use. The work reported here characterizes engineering design and manufacture research data and explores the context of their development and current management. Insights from the work have resulted in the authors proposing a number of new approaches and tools which provide the basis for better management practice.