Introduction

The University of Leeds has a ten year strategy for 2020 to 2030 which aims to harness expertise in education and research to help shape a better future for humanity.

The Strategy has three over-arching elements: community, culture and impact. Each element is supported by a separate plan: Research and Innovation; Student Education; Digital Transformation; International. Read more about the strategy online at Universal Values, Global Change.

Data has an important role to play in helping us deliver our strategy. It powers research and facilitates innovation. Our Data Strategy describes how we plan to address existing cultural, behavioural and structural barriers within the University, and how we will create a system-wide model that is underpinned by accurate data.

Transformation Programmes
The successful digital transformation of the University of Leeds relies on high quality data. There are currently two programmes of transformational change already in progress. This strategy describes how the Data Service will enhance the governance and management of data University-wide. Our initial focus is on corporate data in support of our existing transformation programmes, eventually extending to support the management of research data.

We have focused on developing good practices across four areas:

• Architecture, for structure and place
• Standards, for consistency and reusability
• Quality, for resilience and trust
• Governance, for checks and systems correction

Using safeguards in each of these areas, poor corporate data coming into University systems can be caught and addressed early. Our processes help guarantee the integrity of University data, from creation through to output reporting, which informs good decision making. All four strands are equally important and mutually dependent, working hand in hand to provide quality, accessible data to researchers and educators throughout the University.