Time to bid adieu

When I returned from Australia in late March and handed in my notice, three months sounded so long away. It has passed insanely quickly in a blur of zoom calls, online events and endless email. Now is my final few days with the DCC team. This time next week, I’ll be in Amsterdam gearing up to start a new role with GEANT.

I came to Glasgow just over 20 years ago, joining the university as a fresher and staying on as an archive trainee, then postgraduate and full-time employee. Like the 'dear green place' Glasgow has proved to be, the DCC has provided fertile ground to learn and flourish. I’ve been given so many opportunities over the years to lead projects, run events, develop new ideas, and engage with such a diverse range of people. The camaraderie of colleagues all mucking in to help each other out and memories of travelling the world together will really stay with me. At a recent conference, a US colleague estimated we had 200 staff. That’s around tenfold the largest we’ve ever been! We’re a very small team to have generated the global impact we’ve achieved.

The DCC has gone through many changes over the years, most notably transitioning to a self-sustaining service with income from projects, consultancy, training, events and DMPonline. It’s been a major shift, and one I’m very proud to have a hand in shaping. The team has grown and brought in new staff with different backgrounds and vigour. It makes it an exciting place to be and one I’ll truly miss being a part of. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have such supportive and inspirational bosses too, from Seamus who extolled the importance of socialising with European project partners, to Joy who taught the fine art of juggling competing priorities, and Kevin who encouraged me to see my potential and offered sage advice on career development.

My leaving will definitely be au revoir not a goodbye. Lockdown has meant I’ve not seen my colleagues in person, and while we all work well virtually, I’ve missed the tea-break chats, dumpling day lunches and post-work drinks. I need to return Swiss Cheese plant Marlene to the office and make up for missing last year’s xmas party, so I feel a visit coming on when I’m home for Christmas. But even before that I sense we’ll be in touch. In my new role bringing together the networking and research data communities, I can think of no better partner to help explain the RDM and Open Science space. You’ll be hearing from me and all my new NREN friends. Til then!