Open data needs explored: How open government data is linked with science and education

This summer, we published a new report ‘Open data needs for researchers and academics’. This first in a series of reports explores the links between open government data, open science, and education, this report aims to provide a better understanding of these relationships. There seems to be a disconnection between those worlds, and the reports can support government officials in expanding awareness of developments and trends in the research world. Moreover, the studies show how to increase the use of open datasets in scientific and academic work. 

This first report characterises three types of (potential) users and providers of open data, namely a climate change researcher, a lecturer on data journalism, and an open data officer. These personas, which are fictional characters, have been developed through interviews with researchers and university academics. The interviews provided the insights for the report that are turned into actionable recommendations to improve the availability and quality of open government data.  

The report gives insights into the motivations, goals, and frustrations of open data users with an exhaustive description of each of the personas. For example, the climate change researcher ‘Ingrid’ works to provide scientific support towards mitigating climate change with an open-science approach. Her frustration, however, is that the datasets that she needs are hard to find or not at the appropriate level of granularity. This translates into one of the recommendations for open data platforms to create a specific searchable tag. 

With two more personas, the report provides a good start and a clear overview of identifying open data needs that are expected from researchers and academics. By reading the report, you will get a better understanding of actions that can be taken to overcome frustrations and how the open data landscape is changing.  

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