ABOUT US
OUR PEOPLE
You can contact our dedicated sections or staff members. Here you can find out what our staff do and what their areas of expertise are.
A-Z STAFF LIST
NAME- Ahmet, Mus
- Alexander, Clare
- Bailey, Nathan
- Balkan, Lorna
- Barbalet, Suzanne
- Beauchamp, Laura
- Beeken, Jeannine
- Bell, Darren
- Bell, Sharon
- Berry, Kim
- Bishop, Libby
- Bolton, Sharon
- Brumpton, Matthew
- Byam, Julie
- Cadogan, Susan
- Coates, Chris
- Corti, Louise
- Deyn, Kate
- Etheridge, Anne
- Fisher, Maryse
- Freitas Gomes, Danielle
- Gilders, Sarah
- Haaker, Maureen
- Hakins, Gemma
- Hall, David
- Hassan, Steve
- Johnson, Jon
- Jones, Maddison
- King, Mike
- Knight, Judith
- Kotrotsios, Yannis
- Lacy, Karen
- Lawrance, Rowan
- Lemon, Fiona
- L'Hours, Hervé
- Lichtwardt, Beate
- Lipscomb, James
- Lungley, Deirdre
- Magder, Cristina
- Mann, Hershbinder
- Moradi, Amir
- Parker, Simon
- Pasotti, Annette
- Paterson, Jan
- Randall, Martin
- Redfearn, Andy
- Sanderson, John
- Sato Fowles, Mika
- Sceats, Russell
- Scott, James
- Sexton, Jonathan
- Shepherdson, John
- Smy, Liz
- Summers, Scott
- Talvis, Karolos
- Taylor, Alix
- Taylor, Will
- Van den Eynden, Veerle
- Verwulgen, Ilse
- Vlad, Anca
- Ward, Margaret
- Webb, Joanne
- Wheeler, Jennifer
- Wiedenmann, Ole
- Wiltshire, Deborah
- Winsor, Linda
- Wolton, Alexis
- Wood, Susan
- Woods, Christine
- Woollard, Matthew
Matthew Woollard
Director of the UK Data Archive and the UK Data Service

Tel:+44(0)1206 873704
Address:UK Data Archive
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester
Essex
CO4 3SQ
- Job description
-
Matthew is the Director of both the UK Data Archive and the UK Data Service.
For both the organisation (UK Data Archive) and the service (UK Data Service) his key responsibilities are to: provide effective leadership and strategic direction; developing and enhancing the national and international reputation; ensuring their effective management, and strengthening their relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders and collaborators.
For the UK Data Service, he heads the Strategic Leadership Group ensuring consistent and valid strategic direction.
For the UK Data Archive he is responsible for setting and ensuring the strategic goals of the archive which include the promotion of best practice in data curation, data management and data security; driving archival innovation, advancing the professionalization of data service infrastructures and integrating these activities into the UK Data Service. He also retains his previous responsibilities of the development of the UK Data Archive's digital preservation policy and its implementation and maintenance framework.
Matthew is also the Principal Investigator of the Enhancing and Enriching Historical Census Microdata project and the UK Data Archive's lead on the EC-FP7 4C project, a 'Collaboration to Clarify the Cost of Curation'.
- Research interests
-
Matthew joined the UK Data Archive in January 2003 as the Head of the History Data Service, after six years working in various research capacities in the History Department of the University of Essex.
He completed his Ph.D. in 2005 on the development of occupational classification in the British Isles, 1660-1911. Between 2004 and 2007 he headed a major JISC-funded digitisation project - Online Historical Population Reports (histpop) - which published online almost 190,000 pages of British historical population reports and authored a number of the historical essays on this site.
In 2006 he was appointed Associate Director and Head of Digital Preservation and Systems at the UK Data Archive. He has acted as consultant to a number of historical digitisation projects and contributed to a variety of digital preservation initiatives. He contributed to the Keeping Research Data Safe 2 project to augment and extend the earlier work examining the costs of digital preservation.
Matthew retains an interest in many aspects of historical computing and the application of techniques relating to the analysis of historical sources for local and demographic history, as well as in the social construction of statistics in the past.
- Research awards
-
Own name
2012-2014 ESRC: Enhancing and Enriching Historical Census Microdata [ES/K005731/1] 2012-2017 ESRC: UK Data Service (Core) [ES/J023477/1] 2011-2012
ESRC: CRS/Portal Extension [RES-348-25-0002-01] 2007-2008 ESRC: Evaluation of a digital transcription of English parochial registers, 1538-1851: a pilot study [RES-000-22-2215] 2007-2008 AHDS: AHDS History 2006-2007 AHDS: AHDS History 2005-2006 AHDS: AHDS History 2005 JISC: Table creation for histpop sub-project 2005 JISC: Demonstrator Project 2004-2007 JISC: Online Historical Population Reports Project (histpop) 2004-2005 AHRB, JISC: AHDS History 2003-2004 AHRB, JISC: History Data Service 2003 ESRC: Re-formatting 404 parish data 2003 University of Essex: Pre-1841 census listings In collaboration/Co-Investigator
2013 EU FP7: 4C Project (collaborator) [600471] 2011 EU FP7: Data Without Boundaries Project (collaborator) [262608] 2011 EU FP7: APARSEN Project (collaborator) [269977] 2010 JISC: KRDS/I2S2 (contracted consultant) 2010-2012 ESRC: Secure Data Service Extension (co-investigator) [RES-232-25-0002-01] 2009 JISC: Keeping Research Data Safe (co-applicant) 2008-2009 JISC: GeoDigref Project (led by Edina, University of Edinburgh) - Committee membership
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- UK Data Forum
- CESSDA-ERIC Steering Committee
- Advisory Group for JISC Repositories and Curation Shared Services Programme
- Member Editorial Board, International Journal of Digital Curation (IJDC)
- Member Editorial Board, International Journal of Humanities Computing
- ESRC Administrative Data Taskforce Technical Group
- UK Anonymisation Network
- Publications
-
- Corti, L., Van den Eynden, V., Bishop, L. and Woollard, M. (2014) Managing and Sharing Research Data: A Guide to Good Practice, London: Sage. ISBN: 978-1-44626-726-4
- Woollard, M. and Corti, L. (2013) 'Case study 4: a national solution - the UK Data Service' in G. Pryor, S. Jones and A. Whyte (eds.) Delivering Research Data Management Services: Fundamentals of good practice, Facet Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-85604-933-7
- M. Woollard (2013 forthcoming) 'Digital Preservation in Context' in Neil Grindley and William Kilbride, eds., The Good Digital Preservation Practice Guide (Facet Publishing, 2013).
- Ruusalepp, R., Lee, C. A., van der Werf, B. and Woollard, M. (2012) 'Standards Alignment', in Nancy McGovern, ed., Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation (Atlanta: Educopia Publications, 2012), 115-166. [http://educopia.org/sites/educopia.org/files/ANADP_Educopia_2012.pdf]
- Razzell, P., Spence, C., Woollard, M. (2010) 'The evaluation of Bedfordshire burial registration, 1538-1850', Local Population Studies, 84, Spring, pp.31-54
- Grover, C., Tobin, R., Woollard, M. et al. (2010) 'Use of the Edinburgh geoparser for georeferencing digitized historical collections', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 368 (1925), pp.3875-3889, doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0149. Retrieved February 14, 2013, from http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/368/1925/3875.full
- Beagrie, N., Lavoie, B. and Woollard, M. (2010), Keeping Research Data Safe 2: Final Report - April 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2017, from https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140615221405/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/reports/2010/keepingresearchdatasafe2.pdf
- Bolton, S. and Woollard, M. (2010) 'Strengthening data security: an holistic approach', IASSIST Quarterly, 32. Retrieved February 14, 2013, from http://www.iassistdata.org/downloads/iqvol321_4bolton.pdf
- Woollard, M. (2008) 'The causes and effects of error correction in the population totals of the 1801 census of England and Wales', Local Population Studies, 81, Autumn, pp.84-93
- Foster, J. and Woollard, M. (2007) 'Scoping study for social scientific research materials based on public records and allied archival materials held at The National Archives', Report to the ESRC, University of Essex.
- Woollard, M. (2006) 'Academic and technical reviews of historical digital resources', Report commissioned by the Institute of Historical Research, University of Essex. Retrieved July 29, 2010, from http://www.ahrcict.rdg.ac.uk/activities/strategy_projects/reports/ihr/appendix%205%20-%20ahds%20history%20report.pdf