1. Sustaining access to research data through value-added services and software
Ian Bruno, Suzanna Ward
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
SciDataCon 2016: Sustainable Business Models for Data Repositories, 13 September 2016

2. The Cambridge Structural Database
850,000+ small-molecule crystal structures
Over 60,000 datasets deposited annually
Enriched and annotated by experts
Structures available for anyone to download
Links to over 1,000 journals
Access to data and knowledge

3. The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
Employer of ~60 staff
Scientific editors
Software developers
Applications scientists
Cambridge UK
Piscataway NJ • Seattle WA
UK Registered Charity since 1987
Financially self-supporting, not-for-profit
No direct dependency on public funding
International Data Repository
Archive of crystal structure data
High quality scientific database
Scientific Software Provider
Search/analysis/visualisation tools
Scientific applications and APIs
Collaborative Research Organisation
New methodologies
Fundamental research
Dedicated to the advancement of chemistry and crystallography for the public benefit through providing high quality information services and software.

4. Covering Costs
The CCDC receives no grant funding to support core data activities
access to and preservation of the structure of record
associating rich metadata to enable discovery and reuse
validation by expert scientific staff
development and maintenance of software systems to support all of the above

5. Covering Costs
The CCDC receives no grant funding to support its core activities
We rely solely on income generated through value-added services
primarily CCDC software solutions that exploit the CSD
applying structural knowledge generated from experimental data
drug discovery, crystal engineering, design of new materials, etc.
desktop applications, web services, APIs

6. Revenue and Reserves Annual turnover of CCDC is £4-5M (~$6M)
CSD and Software, 2015
Annual turnover of CCDC is £4-5M (~$6M)
60-70% from industry, 30-40% from academia
Annual budget typically set to break-even
as a registered charity the CCDC cannot make a profit
any surplus must be reinvested in the organisation
Reserves built up over the years provide funds to
cover the risk of unforeseen circumstances
fund studentships and support external scientists
invest in short-term R&D activities
User Community
Number of Sites, May 2014
Costs
Relative spend, 2015

7. Current Sustainability Model
Advantages
Free access to and discoverability of enriched structures of record
Financial and scientific input from industry - academia benefit from both
Accountable to users of the data through the services we provide
Independent status allows us to build and manage R&D funds
Flexibility to allocate expenditure where needed
Not sensitive to impact of changes in the allocation of grant funding
Disadvantages
Sensitive to the fortunes of industry (pharma in particular)
Balancing industrial/academic/community desires
Overhead of attracting and managing around 1,400 financial contributions
Financial barrier to value-added services possibly discourages casual use
Some restrictions on free services

8. Where to draw the line? CSD-Community – free to all
access to and preservation of the structure of record
assigning dataset DOIs and linking data and literature
validation and enrichment by expert scientific staff
resources to support teaching and education
interoperability with third party resources to enable discovery
services enabling structure lookup and download
software providing structure visualisation and validation
CSD-Enterprise – financial contribution requested
software and services enabling systematic search and analysis
software solutions supporting application of knowledge to specific problems
Fountain Pen courtesy of Clker.com via clipartlord.com.

9. Countries Contributing Data Countries Using Value-added Services
Community Acceptance
Countries Contributing Data
Analysis based on a sampling of address domains
24 countries with academic country-wide licences
Colour-coding reflects nature of academic arrangements
Countries Using Value-added Services
Sources of academic financial contributions include
country-wide arrangements through National Affiliated Centres
institutional libraries
individual researchers and groups

10. Controlling Costs, Developing Income
Consolidating current revenue sources
country-wide agreements enabling unlimited academic access
Optimising workflows to keep up with demand
investment in internal infrastructure supported by R&D Fund
Consultancy-based services
rewards thus far small but growing interest and opportunity
Engagement in research initiatives
funding to support development of new approaches and services
Addressing the pharmaceutical industry’s desire to deliver medicines more effectively to patients
A four-year collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, solution providers and academia

11. The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
850,000+ publicly accessible crystal structures
60,000+ datasets processed and enriched per year
50+ years of sustainability
Sustainable access to research data through value-added services and software
International Data Repository
Archive of crystal structure data
High quality scientific database
Scientific Software Provider
Search/analysis/visualisation tools
Scientific applications and APIs
Collaborative Research Organisation
New methodologies
Fundamental research
Dedicated to the advancement of chemistry and crystallography for the public benefit through providing high quality information services and software.