We’re hiring!

Information Services has a new vacancy for a Data Safe Haven Operations Assistant to work directly with the Data Safe Haven Manager in the Research Data Support Team in providing operational support for the Data Safe Haven and its users across the University. This is an excellent opportunity for an enthusiastic researcher or professional to apply their academic and support skills to a growing service area, and to help build and raise awareness of our new Data Safe Haven.

You will have research experience and knowledge of current data protection regulations and other relevant legislation in the context of research. You will have an understanding of university structures and norms. You will know how to work methodically and transparently, following and documenting standard operating procedures. You will document and present the service for different audiences to ensure high levels of uptake and engagement with the service.

The Data Safe Haven Operations Assistant is a key role in the development and delivery of the new Data Safe Haven component of the Research Data Service, delivered by Library Research Support together with other sections of Information Services. The role allows the post-holder to contribute to defining the way the Data Safe Haven service will operate within the University, including achieving standards-based certifications.

This is a fixed-term full-time position for two years. Funded by the Digital Research Services programme, you will be part of a collaborative, engaging, and innovative working environment within Information Services. There are many advantages to working at the University. Benefits include flexible working, an excellent pension, career prospects and generous holiday provision.

Closing date: 15th February, 2019

Full details are available at: https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=046776

On behalf of Cuna Ekmekcioglu
Data Safe Haven Manager

New team members, new team!

Time has passed, so inevitably we have said goodbye to some and hello to others on the Research Data Support team. Amongst other changes, all of us are now based together in Library & University Collections – organisationally, that is, while remaining located in Argyle House with the rest of the Research Data Service providers such as IT Infrastructure. (For an interview with the newest team member there, David Fergusson, Head of Research Services, see this month’s issue of BITS.)

So two teams have come together under Research Data Support as part of Library Research Support, headed by Dominic Tate in L&UC. Those of us leaving EDINA and Data Library look back on a rich legacy dating back to the early 1980s when the Data Library was set up as a specialist function within computing services. We are happy to become ‘mainstreamed’ within the Library going forward, as research data support becomes an essential function of academic librarianship all over the world*. Of course we will continue to collaborate with EDINA for software engineering requirements and new projects.

Introducing –

Jennifer Daub has worked in a range of research roles, from lab-based parasite genomics at the University of Edinburgh to bioinformatics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Prior to joining the team, Jennifer provided data management support to users of clinical trials management software across the UK and is experienced managing sensitive data.

As Research Data Service Assistant, Jennifer has joined veterans Pauline Ward and Bob Sanders in assisting users with DataShare and Data Library as well as the newer DataVault and Data Safe Haven functions, and additionally providing general support and training along with the rest of the team.

Catherine Clarissa is doing her PhD in Nursing Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her study is looking at patients’ and staff experiences of early mobilisation during the course of mechanical ventilation in an Intensive Care Unit. She has good knowledge of good practice in Research Data Management that has been expanded by taking training from the University and by developing a Data Management Plan for her own research.

As Project Officer she is working closely with project manager Pauline Ward on the Video Case Studies project, funded by the IS Innovation Fund over the next few months. We have invited her to post to the blog about the project soon!

Last but not least, Martin Donnelly will be joining us from the Digital Curation Centre, where he has spent the last decade helping research institutions raise their data management capabilities via a mixture of paid consultancy and pro bono assistance. He has a longstanding involvement in data management planning and policy, and interests in training, advocacy, holistic approaches to managing research outputs, and arts and humanities data.

Before joining Edinburgh in 2008, Martin worked at the University of Glasgow, where he was involved in European cultural heritage and digital preservation projects, and the pre-merger Edinburgh College of Art where he coordinated quality and accreditation processes. He has acted as an expert reviewer for European Commission data management plans on multiple occasions, and is a Fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute.

We look forward to Martin joining the team next month, where he will take responsibility as Research Data Support Manager, providing expertise and line management support to the team as well as senior level support to the service owner, Robin Rice, and to the Data Safe Haven Manager, Cuna Ekmekcioglu – who recently shifted her role from lead on training and outreach. Kerry Miller, Research Data Support Officer, is actively picking up her duties and making new contacts throughout the university to find new avenues for the team’s outreach and training delivery.

*The past and present rise of data librarianship within academic libraries is traced in the first chapter of The Data Librarian’s Handbook, by Robin Rice and John Southall.

Robin Rice
Data Librarian and Head, Research Data Support
Library & University Collections

Introducing new support team members

Since mid-January, two new Research Data Service Assistants have joined the busy ‘virtual team’ working across divisions of Information Services to provide user support for RDM and Data Library enquiries and to quality assure DataShare submissions. You may have already come in contact with them, but a brief welcome is in order nonetheless.

Both new team members have a research background but surprisingly, from the same field and institution! Nevertheless they had not met until they arrived at our offices in Argyle House for their first day of work. Diarmuid joins us full-time, commuting daily from Glasgow, and Bob works half-time, taking advantage of a short walk from home.

mcdonnellDiarmuid McDonnell has taught a variety of research design, data management and analysis courses across a number of Scottish universities and levels. He is proficient in the use of Stata, SPSS and SAS for research and teaching purposes and is particularly experienced in the use of administrative data for social science research, which he used for his recently completed PhD thesis at Stirling University.

sandersBob Sanders recently completed his PhD at Stirling University looking at the relationship between dependency and care receipt in later life. He has extensive experience undertaking quantitative research, including the routine and advanced management and statistical analysis of large-scale longitudinal data. He is capable of conducting end-to-end data preparation, management and analysis using syntax-driven commands in Stata, with experience using other statistical software packages such as SPSS and Excel.

In addition to their repository and user support work for EDINA and Data Library, they have already made unique contributions to the service. Diarmuid has revised and taught our Data Handling in SPSS half-day workshop, as well as piloted an Introduction to Statistical Literacy workshop for Humanists. Bob has joined the Data Safe Haven development project, helping to work out operational processes and user documentation, as well as giving the online MANTRA course a thorough editing job.

Robin Rice
Data Librarian and Head, Research Data Support
EDINA and Data Library

Welcome to the new Research Data Management Service Coordinator: Stuart Macdonald

We welcome Stuart Macdonald to the position of Research Data Management Service Coordinator, as a 1-year secondment for the current post-holder. Stuart will continue the work of developing the research data services provided by Information Services at the University of Edinburgh. Stuart will be working for three quarters of his time on the programme, and the remaining quarter in his current role as Associate Data Librarian for EDINA and the Data Library.

Stuart Macdonald

Stuart has recently returned from a six month secondment at Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research as Data Services Librarian where he co-ordinated the successful Data Seal of Approval trusted repository application for CISER Data Archive as well as modernized archival process and practice.

When not working as service coordinator, Stuart will be working towards gaining the Data Seal of Approval for DataShare, the University’s open data repository.

On the role of service coordinator, Stuart says “This is a marvellous opportunity to be at the heart of research data management activities here at the University and to continue the great work that has already been put in place”