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Data Infrastructure for Common Challenges
  • Data Landscape Playbook
    • Data Landscape Playbook: status
    • What is this playbook for?
    • Who is this playbook for?
  • Play one: Explore the problem and how data can address it
    • Define how improving access to data can help address your problem
    • What type of data infrastructure does the initiative aim to create or maintain?
      • Build or manage data assets
      • Create or adopt data standards
      • Build or improve technologies
      • Create guidelines and policies
      • Build or support organisations and communities
    • Carry out initial research and engagement
    • Summary of Play One
  • Play two: Map the data ecosystem
    • Engage with key stakeholders
    • Create an ecosystem map
    • Identify gaps, barriers and opportunities
    • Summary of Play Two
  • Play three: Assess the policy, regulatory and ethical context
    • Understand the legal, regulatory and policy context of the initiative
    • Understand the ethical issues impacting your initiative
    • Summary of Play Three
  • Play four: Assess the existing data infrastructure
    • Make a data inventory
    • Assess open standards for data
    • Assess data skills and literacies
    • Summary of Play Four
  • Play five: Plan for impact when designing your data initiative
    • Plan an impactful initiative
    • Identify risks, assumptions and dependencies
    • Sketch your evaluation framework
    • Summary of Play Five
  • What comes next?
  • Acknowledgements
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  • How to use this playbook
  • Data infrastructure for data access initiatives
  • What is a data access initiative?

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  1. Data Landscape Playbook

Who is this playbook for?

PreviousWhat is this playbook for?NextPlay one: Explore the problem and how data can address it

Last updated 4 years ago

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This playbook is primarily aimed at organisations involved in – and especially leading – data access initiatives that are planning to build or strengthen data infrastructure. Your organisation can use this playbook when considering designing and delivering a new collaborative programme of work which focuses on collecting, using or sharing data with the aim of addressing a common challenge.

How to use this playbook

If you are a new organisation or early on in your initiative you may want to start with and proceed sequentially. You do not need to complete each activity before starting the next, but activities such as literature reviews and interviews can make creating stakeholder maps and data inventories much easier.

If you are experienced or have an in-flight data project, you may want to just use specific plays such as or .

If your initiative has already built data infrastructure to tackle a problem but wants to implement it in another context, we suggest reviewing plays such as and to describe the data ecosystem and assess the policy and regulatory landscape and considerations. If there are any major changes needed to adapt the data infrastructure in that context or sector, we recommend looking at plays such as and to define the activities and outputs needed and reflect on the data infrastructure that might support the initiative.

If you are new to the term ‘data infrastructure’, we recommend you read the next section which explores the concepts of data infrastructure and data access initiatives.

If you are comfortable with the terminology, we recommend that you jump straight into the most relevant play, however the information is there for reference if you need it.

Data infrastructure for data access initiatives

In order to be able to collect, access, use and share data to tackle complex challenges in a way that creates value and minimises harmful impacts, we need to build strong data infrastructure. consists of:

  • Data assets (such as datasets, identifiers and registers)

  • Standards and technologies used to curate and provide access to data assets

  • Guidance and policies that inform the use and management of data assets and the data infrastructure

  • Organisations that govern the data infrastructure

  • Communities involved in contributing to or maintaining data infrastructure, and those who are impacted by decisions that are made using it

What is a data access initiative?

To differentiate these from other projects and initiatives, we characterise data access initiatives as initiatives or programmes that:

  • Have a clear challenge, in the form of a specific social, environmental or economic problem that is the focus for the collaboration

  • Involve multiple stakeholders that are actively working together to solve the problem

  • Include a strong focus on collecting, using and sharing data as part of their work

As part of our work exploring data infrastructure for common challenges, we have been using the term ‘’. We define a data access initiative as a collaborative programme that focuses on collecting, using and sharing data to address a social, environmental or economic challenge.

This playbook is specifically written for individuals and organisations leading data access initiatives that are focused on building data infrastructure. If you are running an initiative that is focused mainly on improving capability, enabling innovation or improving trust and trustworthiness, you may find the plays less useful. If your data access initiative is focused on ‘challenge prizes’ and how to design and deliver them, we recommend reading the Nesta publication ‘’. If you are designing a challenge prize to help drive innovative uses of data in health, we recommend reading our resource ‘’.

Data access initiatives help communities address socio-economic challenges. Image credit: ODI
Play one: Explore the problem and how data can address it
Play two: Map the data ecosystem
Play four: Assess the existing data infrastructure
Play two: Map the data ecosystem
Play three: Assess the policy, regulatory and ethical context
Play five: Plan for impact when designing your initiative
Play four: Assess the existing data infrastructure
Data infrastructure
data access initiatives
Challenge Prizes: a Practice Guide
Data Challenge Prizes for Health: a Playbook