Postdoctoral Research Associate

Description

The Libraries has been providing data management services to campus for the past three years with the Data Curation Librarian providing the majority of the support. The Libraries has made good progress on offering these services, but is limited by how much support can be provided by less than 1 FTE devoted to data management services. Last year the Research Computing Governance Committee (RCGC) Data Management and Curation Subcommittee administered a data management and curation survey that was sent to faculty, researchers, staff, and graduate students to discover their data storage, data management, and curation needs. Results indicated a need for data management workshops, active data management support, and a local (UA) data repository. As a result, the Subcommittee developed a Data Management and Data Publication and Curation (DMDC) Pilot proposal. The proposal was supported by RCGC and received funding from the RCGC sponsors in the fall of 2015.

This position will serve two major purposes: 1) as part of the DMDC Pilot, provide support for five research projects (chemical engineering and education, cancer research, public health, entomology, and ecology) participating in the pilot by developing templates, workflows etc., assisting in setting up data management technology and tools, and providing metadata support; and 2) work with the data curation librarian to expand data management and curation services and programs focusing on reaching out to campus to provide a variety of educational support for data management and data curation.

The incumbent will continue to develop their research competencies by working with the research groups on data management technology and tools (as part of the pilot); and by developing advanced data management workshops.

Duties and Responsibilities 
 
Provide support for the research projects participating in the DMDC pilot:

• Work with the research groups to update their data management plan
• Assist the research groups in setting up the most appropriate data management technology and tools
• Consult with the research groups on what data workflow and metadata standard to use
• Evaluate utility of tools and services the groups are using
• Assist the research groups in getting data ‘repository ready’
• Work with the data curation librarian in evaluating the pilot

Work with the data curation librarian to expand data management and curation services and programs, for example:

• Plan and deliver data management workshops and instruction sessions to various colleges, departments and other units on campus
• Develop other educational support for data management and curation to campus such as involvement in organizing activities and programs during I Love Data Week and Open Access Week
• Develop a model/framework for data management workshops
• Attend RCGC Data Management and Curation Subcommittee meetings and Library Data Management group meetings.
• Work with the Office of Research and Discovery (ORD) and University Information Technology Services (UITS) on joint projects, attend relevant ORD and UITS meetings
• Other duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. obtained within the past 5 years

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with data or archival services
• Familiarity with data management practices and various data management tools
• Knowledge of several metadata schemas
• Background or experience teaching data management workshops
• Knowledge or experience using data analysis software
• Demonstrated organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and planning skills
• Good communication skills