Research Computing and Cyberinfrastructure

Data Governance Working Group Progress Report for 2015/16

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(Joseph Broniszewski and Stephanie Lanza, co-chairs)

Statement:

Because our Working Group is so large and our area of focus so broad, our top priority in the fall was to hold a series of small-group informational meetings with a number of individuals from within the group. Research Computing “Guru”, Greg Madden, was able to attend all of these meetings, which has been really helpful. These meetings have provided insight into the capabilities and missions of various groups across campus offering or needing data-related services, and important gaps, overlap of services, and issues.  At the full WG meeting in January, we distributed the summary of this information.

Accomplishments for Fall 2015/Spring 2016:

  • We started to utilize the knowledge from our small-group meetings to create a document that maps current PSU services onto the data life cycle for various types/categories of data. We have also received information about non-PSU related services that could be alternative to Penn State services. In meetings, we covered a variety of emerging topics and concluded with the formation of three subgroups to move forward on focused tasks: (1) Data preservation/data life cycle, (2) Research data categorization, and (3) Onboarding materials for new researchers at Penn State.
  • This coincides with other considerations that we believe could be related to ways that PSU could provide data governance-related support to researchers. This support likely would need to encompass better onboarding and continuing education for researchers, a centralized website summarizing the various resources at the University and how they relate to different types of research data, and a team of individuals who can be contacted with questions related to research data governance.
  • Our WG continues to grow in order to better assure representation from important units from across the university. Most notably, we have augmented our team by reaching out to several key administrative units, including Candace Yekel in the Office of Research Protections, Karen Estlund in the Libraries, Angie Morrison in Office of Sponsored Programs, Mark Henderson in the OVPR, and Matthew Decker and Jim Leous in Information Technology Services. We are in the process of refining our list of formal WG associates to include these individuals.
  • In a full WG meeting on 3/29/16 led by Maurie Kelly and Karen Estlund, we focused on data preservation and the data lifecycle, the topic of one of the three primary task force groups we established. Finalizing the membership in the smaller subgroups will be a goal for the spring/summer; key individuals have agreed to lead the three task forces, as follows:
    • 1) Data preservation/data life cycle: Maurie Kelly, Karen Estlund
    • 2) Research data categorization: John Hanold, Candice Yekel (with Joe Broniszewski)
    • 3) Onboarding materials for new researchers at Penn State: Jim Leous, Bethany Bray (with Stephanie Lanza)
    • In addition, it came to our attention that a large data use agreement working group has been in place for some time. In consultation with the other RCCI-AC co-chairs, it was decided that we would invite all members of that group to join the Data Governance WG as associates. We are in the process of identifying the chair(s) of that group and onboarding all of those individuals, and look forward to meeting them. So, our fourth task force will be: 4) Data Use Agreements.

Planned Work for Fall 2016/Spring 2017:

  • We plan to conduct concrete activities within each task force, including a kickoff meeting of each group during April/May to set goals on deliverables. Our WG has studied the current data categorization scheme at Penn State and will be proposing a revised categorization specific to research data. Jim Leous has begun work on onboarding materials separately from our group, and Greg Madden connected him with our group. We plan to convene a meeting to begin to combine information on onboarding. We plan to compile information over the summer and make a recommendation as to where we feel the materials belong on the Penn State website (likely the OVPR site). The data preservation group has been actively meeting, combining forces across the Data Commons and Library. Pending deliverables from that group are to be determined.

RCCI Year-End Report and Self-Assessment for 2015-2016

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The report linked below summarizes the accomplishments of the Research Computing and CyberInfrastructure (RCCI) governance structure during the 2015-2016 academic year, along with an assessment of challenges and opportunities facing RCCI in the near future.  Overall, RCCI is accomplishing its goal of creating a communication network between faculty researchers, university administrative offices, and IT units that have a major influence on research computing. In its first year it has succeeded in created working groups to address issues both narrow and broad..  Many projects are ongoing, and we have seen a desire for cooperation in relevant administrative offices, IT units, and with faculty stakeholders that is allowing us to gain traction on thorny cyberinfrastructure issues.  Without the presence of RCCI, it is doubtful that many of these critical topics would be being tackled at all, let alone with broad input from the research community and other critical stakeholders.

The report includes:

  1. A summary of key accomplishments and ongoing projects on specific fronts from the point of view of the “research guru” office
  2. The annual reports of each of the RCCI working groups
  3. A list of “big-picture” IT Career Track Challenges and corrective policy recommendations
  4. RCCI Research Network & Data Classification Policies Working Group’s Recommendations for the Penn State Research Network and
  5. Penn State Research Network success stories

You can read the report in its entirety here: RCCI EC Year End report and assessment 6-14-2016