Data governance training for low- and middle-income countries

Much social science research is based around personal data, and so understanding data governance is key to collecting and using that information safely. This is a problem, as research methods courses typically focus on a few elements (ethical approval, data protection law) and skip over or ignore issues such as disclosure control, data management or staff training.

The problem is more severe in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where (a) resources are more limited (b) there may be fewer off-the-peg resources (template consent forms, common wording for data sharing agreements etc) to call on.

In 2020 the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded, as a proof-of-concept, a ‘Summer school’ for researchers on its Global Health Programme. This built upon an earlier NIHR-funded exercise in training researchers in Nepal. The summer school was well received and generated a wealth of new ideas and approaches for the teaching team. NIHR agreed to fund a further series of virtual courses, running in Spring and Autumn 2022-2026. As well as delivering the course, the team were requested to develop teaching materials which could be adapted and used by others.

This paper describes the lessons learned from running the course over the first two years. The learning comes from three sources: - Developing materials to cover cradle-to-grave data governance and management, from data collection to post-project distribution strategies - Applying this to radically different situations in a consistent manner to allow effective learning for all - Identifying common issues for researchers in LMICS, such as data colonisation

This research was funded by the NIHR (NIHR150089) using UK aid from the UK Government. The views expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care.