Posted September 5, 2023 by Dan Moser
A new task force is bringing together researchers and service units across the university to create a comprehensive research data strategy.
The Comprehensive Research Data Strategy Task Force includes faculty researchers, administrators, and service units with responsibility for aspects of research data, including the Holland Computing Center, Information Technology Services, the Office of Research and Economic Development and University Libraries.
The task force “was convened to research, plan and author a comprehensive research data strategy for UNL that will be a holistic, university-wide approach to anticipating, managing and supporting the increasingly complex set of challenges that contemporary researchers face as they create, use and maintain research data,” said Jennifer Nelson, assistant vice chancellor for research, who’s co-leading the effort.
The strategy will enable and sustain groundbreaking research, scholarship and creative activity; maintain and grow institutional competitiveness; mitigate a variety of risks; and avoid redundancy of resources and effort, while anticipating critical gaps and identifying strategic directions for resources and investment.
Task force members have been working for months to strategize solutions for research data storage challenges, as a first topic. Nelson said the effort is key because it draws from the perspectives of faculty researchers across UNL as well as critical service providing units, such that these groups are collaboratively creating the data strategy.
Liz Lorang, interim dean of University Libraries and task force co-chair, said, “The strategy will encompass the full research data life cycle, from project planning/pre-award to data archiving and preservation after active or sponsored project phases.”
Lorang and Nelson stressed that the task force itself is not charged with implementing strategies; that will be the responsibility of the service units. Implementation of improvements in information and tools that can help researchers better identify data storage solutions is already in the works informed by the Task Force.
Updates about task force progress and follow up activities will be posted to its webpage and shared through other communication channels throughout the academic year.
