Love Data Week 2026 : Where's the Data? The Journey Home for Our Research at UCL

Where’s the Data? Love Data Week 2026 and the Journey Home for Our Research This article, written for Love Data Week 2026 by Nicholas Owen of UCL Advanced Research Computing (ARC), addresses the critical issue of fragmented research data storage. It explores the risks of the current "everywhere and nowhere" landscape, where data remains trapped on personal drives, unpatched NAS boxes, or commercial cloud accounts, leading to security vulnerabilities and data silos. Stewardship at UCL advocates for shifting from this "digital shoebox" model to a centralized, enterprise-grade Research Data Platform focused on three core principles: resilience, cost-effectiveness, and utility. It details how ARC’s Data Stewards partner with researchers to migrate data, integrating it into an ecosystem that seamlessly connects storage with High-Performance Computing (HPC) and publishing workflows. The article highlights the role of the Research Data Storage Service (RDSS) and Research Data Repository (RDR) in ensuring long-term preservation and compliance, urging researchers to secure their data’s future. Originally posted as part of Love Data Week 2026 Where’s the Data? Love Data Week and the Journey Home for Our Research | UCL Open@UCL Blog