RDMF17: “The road less travelled?” Research data, careers and other pathways

09 June 2017 |

The seventh RDMF meeting, held in Warwick back in 2011, took “Incentivising Data Management and Sharing” as its topic, with presentations providing funder, institutional and infrastructural perspectives on the then-nascent discipline. More recently, Professor Les Carr’s keynote at RDMF16 in Edinburgh last Autumn touched on the sometimes fraught relationship between the ideal (i.e. the scholarly work in itself) and the more quotidian (career considerations) when he cited David Barron’s maxim that “Research is the by-product of researchers getting promoted.”

Six years on from the first of these events, and six months on from the latter, how – and to what extent – have data career pathways matured in the last half-decade, and what might we expect from the next five to ten years? As estimates of the numbers of data scientists that will be required to meet demand in the coming years become ever more extravagant, how well positioned is the academy to produce these, whether via formal qualifications or the development of existing staff? How do we balance and reconcile the scholarly effort involved in research data management (and software, as Research Software Engineer matures as a profession) with career progression? And how do we ensure we continue to address the concerns of different stakeholder groups, such as funders and publishers? In short, how far have we come, where are we now, and what must we continue to plan for?

Speakers and presentations

Click the presentation titles for slides.

Keynote(s) – The iSchool view (“Next Generation Data Roles and Pathways” / “Transferability of Data-Related Roles and Competencies”) - Dr Liz Lyon and Professor Sheila Corrall (University of Pittsburgh)
“An early career researcher's view on modern and open scholarship… and careers” - Dr Laurent Gatto (University of Cambridge)
“Becoming a research data manager - the view from the front” - Jez Cope (University of Sheffield)
“Embedding incentives for open research - a funder perspective” - David Carr (Wellcome Trust)
“Research Data Management ‘beyond compliance’ – the publisher’s view” - Dr Elena Zudilova-Seinstra and Joe Shell (Elsevier RDM Solutions)
“Attracting, training and retaining staff in Research Data Management” - Dr Danny Kingsley, University of Cambridge

The full agenda is available via the link on the right hand side of this page.

Outputs

Flipcharts from Liz and Sheila's breakout group on "Universities and Skills" [1] [2] [3] [4]
Graham Blyth's notes from the "Universities and Skills" group
Notes from Elena and Joe's breakout session on "Engaging with researchers in the RDM space: challenges and opportunities"
Storify collection of Tweets from the event

Amplification: We used the hashtag #rdmf17

Feedback: We always welcome your feedback on our events to help us improve future sessions. After the event please take a moment to complete this short feedback form.

Costs and Registration

Registrations are now closed.

Venue address and travel:

Our venue is Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ - directly across the road from Euston station.

To help with your travel arrangements, the event is expected to begin with coffee at 9.30am, presentations from 10am, and scheduled to wrap up at 4pm.

Image credit:

US National Archives: https://www.flickr.com/photos/35740357@N03/5506529518/ (unrestricted licence)

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RDMF17: “The road less travelled?” Research data, careers and other pathways

Costs and Registration