Monash University has a serious commitment to research data management. This is evidenced by its leadership role of the national Systemic Information Infrastructure projects ARROW, DART and ARCHER, as well as the Monash University Information Management Strategy and specific data management activities. In recognition of its commitment to data management, Monash University was selected to be the lead agent in the Australian National Data Service (ANDS). This is a national project which is working to develop good data management practice, collaboration, infrastructure and services. This paper will provide background on the strategic environment for data management. It will then provide an overview of the implementation of the data management initiatives at Monash University, which are a collaborative endeavour between the Library, eResearch Centre, Research Office, Information Technology Services and Records and Archives Services. The Data Management Policy, Procedure and Guidelines will be outlined and various strategies revealed towards the implementation of these. This will include the DARE Project. DARE is not an acronym, but it encompasses the keywords most closely associated with this project: data management, ARROW, archives, research, repositories, enablement, ePress. It is an initiative to increase outreach into the faculties by extending the role of contact librarians to include data management advice, building on their specialist knowledge of the information environments of their disciplines and existing relationships with researchers. A ‘triage’ model is being developed to enable researchers to manage research data using a range of expertise and infrastructure for current and future needs as the university moves further into the digital age and data management. A critical component of the Monash University e-research strategy is LaRDS, the university’s Large Research Data Store, which provides hundreds of terabytes (TB) of capacity for storage of Monash University research data. Conclusions will be made about the future of data management and the learnings from the journey outlined above.Clarke, S.; Macmillan, W.; Searle, S.; Harboe-Ree, C.; Clarke, N. To DARE or not to DARE. Presented at EDUCAUSE Australasia; 2009 May 3-6; Perth, Australia. 10 leaves.handle 1959.1/76552pid monash:9268