Research Computing and Data (RCD) Monthly

September 2025

In this issue:

1. RCD Nexus Day 2025 and RCD Nexus Project: Read the Reports
2. Take the 2025 RCD Census Survey
3. New! NAIRR Pilot Newsletter — Subscribe Now!
4. September Events and Call Topics
5. All Things AI: NAIRR Pilot and AI-Related Events and Announcements
   
6. CaRCC Volunteer Opportunities
   

 RCD Nexus Day 2025 and RCD Nexus Project: Read the Reports

A new report is now available detailing the activities of the RCD Nexus Day 2025. With generous support from Internet2 Research Engagement and the National Science Foundation, this event was held on July 20, 2025 in Columbus, OH, as an official co-located event of the PEARC25. RCD Nexus Day 2025 hosted a total of 121 attendees from 78 institutions. The event included a Future Creating Workshop for RCD professionals and a workshop on Refreshing and Refining the CaRCC Capabilities Model Questions.

The final annual report for the RCD Nexus project is also now available. The main areas of emphasis for the RCD Nexus included:

• A more robust and sustainable implementation of the CaRCC Capabilities Model and a new Community Dataset portal
  
• Conducting an RCD Workforce Survey and sharing the results
  
• Advancing the adoption of the Human Resources (HR) Job Family Framework
  
• Developing a Career Arcs resource for RCD professionals
  
• Curating leading practices for staff professional development, and for involving students
  

      Shape the Future of the RCD Workforce:  Take the 2025 RCD Census Survey!

The RCD field continues to evolve rapidly, as does the need to better understand the people who power it. That’s why the CaRCC RCD Professionalization Working Group is launching the 2025 RCD Workforce Survey — a national effort to gather insights into the roles, characteristics, and job activities of professionals supporting research computing and data across institutions.

If you work in or alongside the RCD space, whether as an RCD facilitator, data librarian, systems professional, data scientist, software developer, RCD project manager, leader, or anything similar, your voice matters!

New NAIRR Pilot Newsletter — Subscribe now!

Subscribe now to a new newsletter featuring news and announcements from the NAIRR Pilot project.

September Events And Call Topics At-a-Glance 

Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network and CaRCC Activity Group Calls (Zoom details at the end), as well as Calls from our RCD ecosystem peers. For handy calendar entries, try the CaRCC People Network Calendar (GCal view; calendar integration). And if you’re not on our mailing lists, you can join via our Members page and join our Slack channels. 

Monthly CaRCC Welcome

Thu, 9/3, 2p ET / 1p CT / 12p MT / 12:30p PT (1st Thu)

Come to learn more about CaRCC’s community-powered organization and opportunities, and feel free to bring along or pass the word to colleagues. These use the same Zoom coordinates as our People Network calls (see further below).

CaRCC People Network Calls

Data-Facing Track (1st Tuesdays) Tue 9/2, 1p ET / 12p CT / 11a MT / 10a PT The Data Rescue Project: Preserving Public Access to Public Data

Strategy and Policy-Facing Track (1st Wednesdays) Wed 9/3, 12p ET / 11a CT / 10a MT / 9a PT Looking Ahead: Adjusting to Changing Landscape of Research Computing

Researcher-Facing Track (2nd Thursdays) Thu 9/11, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT  Topic TBA

Emerging Centers Track (3rd Wednesdays) Wed 9/10, 12p ET / 11a CT / 10a MT / 9a PT Science Policy for Impact in Uncertain Times (rescheduled from August; note week change)

Systems-Facing Track (3rd Thursdays) Thu 9/18, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT Successes and Challenges Using LLMs within a Systems-Facing Context, Brandon Biggs, HPC Systems Administrator, Idaho National Lab

Additional Community Opportunities

Tue 9/9, 1p ET/ 10a PT (2nd Tuesdays): RCD Capabilities Model Office Hours.  Meeting coordinates: Zoom Session URL. Join the capsmodel-discuss@carcc.org mailing list or send questions to capsmodel-help@carcc.org.

Thu 9/3, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11am MT/ 10a PT (1st Thursdays): RCD Mentoring Working Group Monthly Meet-Up. Meeting coordinates: Zoom Session URL. Join the workforce-mentoring-wg@carcc.org mailing list or send questions to RCD Staff and Student Workforce Mentoring Coordinators.

Tue 9/9, 2p ET/ 1p CT/ 12p MT/ 11a PT (2nd Tuesdays): RCD Staff and Student Workforce Development Interest Groups. Nexus Day 2025: Early Insights and Next Steps. Zoom Session URL. Join the Interest Group mailing list.

Wed 9/10, 1p ET/ 10a PT (2nd Wednesdays): AI Facilitation Interest Group monthly gathering. “Research Computing and Data Chatbot Series” discussion, speaker(s) TBD. Meeting coordinates: Zoom Session URL. Join here: https://carcc.org/ai-facilitation-ig/ 

Wed 9/10, 2p ET/ 11a PT (2nd Wednesdays): Regulated Research Community of Practice (RRCoP) Please use this Zoom link, and contact info@regulatedresearch.org or Carolyn Ellis with any questions.

Thu 9/11, 12p ET/ 9a PT (2nd Thursdays/2nd Fridays): US Research Software Engineers monthly community call. See https://us-rse.org/calendar/ for more information.

CaRCC Calls and Zoom

All CaRCC People Network and Monthly Welcome calls will take place within the Zoom room below, also visible in the CaRCC People Network Google calendar (see above). Please help us keep these details secure (non-public), but feel free to share with a colleague.

https://utah.zoom.us/my/carcc?pwd=TjFuR3VVM2d5eE5zWnEvWWxDTFBCUT09

All Things AI

A quick-hit listing of upcoming events and training related to the NAIRR Pilot and other AI initiatives

Volunteer Opportunities

Join the Mentoring Working Group, CaRCC Metrics Team, or be a People Network track coordinator or steering committee member. Volunteer today!

RCD Monthly is a newsletter dedicated to the Research Computing and Data (RCD) professional community and others who work to support research using technology. This work is supported by grants OAC- 2436057 and OAC-2100003. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. 

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