Advancing the Workforce That Supports Computationally and Data Intensive Research - Patrick Schmitz, Scott Yockel, Claire Mizumoto, Thomas Cheatham, Dana Brunson, Computing in Science and Engineering

This resource first appeared in issue #94 on 01 Oct 2021 and has tags Strategy: Advocacy Resources

In #79 we mentioned an NSF grant on Strategic Tools, Practices, and Professional Development for Advancing Research Computing and Data. In this paper, the investigators give a great overview of the need for research computing and data personnel, real professional development opportunities, the very different requirements from higher ed IT, and the need for a career ladder on the individual contributor path. Newsletter readers won’t be surprised by the thrust of the paper, but it may be very useful for advocating, and it’s worth a read - there are great tidbits, e.g.:

researchers in the social sciences, for example, are using as much computing resources as physicists did ten years ago

In an April 2017, CaRCC survey of RCD professionals at over 150 universities, colleges, and government labs, professional development was identified as the top priority.

I greatly like the approach taken here of considering research computing and data as a whole with multiple facets. And there’s even a call for education managers for both staff and managers!