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In publicly-funded research and research education, Research Computing and Data (RCD) professionals enable scholarly research and are widely understood to be integral to advancing science. Increasingly, these roles are evolving into a distinct profession deserving of elevation and recognition as a highly valued career path. The RCD Professionalization* Working Group supports this evolution of thought through a series of targeted initiatives.
We advocate for the recognition of RCD professionals through developing and disseminating resources, products, and approaches that describe the RCD profession, the workforce, and the complexity of their roles. Our vision is to develop and disseminate frameworks and models that can be used by institutional leaders in Human Resources, Information Technology, Research, and Teaching & Learning to advance the RCD profession, support equitable compensation, and grow an RCD professional identity.
Much of this work (and other CaRCC activities) is structured around the community-developed CaRCC Facings conceptual model.
Helpful Definitions
RCD Responsibilities: Research Computing and Data (RCD) professional responsibilities encompass managing or supporting computational resources, data storage systems, specialized software, and/or related resources, services, and technologies to help research study teams conduct science.
RCD Facilitation: RCD Facilitation advances scholarly discovery by empowering researchers to better leverage research computing and data resources for themselves.
Current Product Development
The group is currently working on an updated version of the 2021 RCD Workforce Survey to provide deeper insight into the typical role and workflow of researcher-facing RCD “Facilitators”. Products will include:
- Updated 2025 RCD Workforce Survey
- Updated data about RCD Professionals, their characteristics, roles, and job activities
- Papers and presentations with analysis and key findings from survey results
- Visualizations of RCD facilitator job complexity
- Other communications promoting community awareness of the above
Sustained Community Products
- HR Job Family Matrix specifically for RCD Professionals that has been customized for implementation by a range of institutions to properly classify RCD Professional roles. Details about the creation of this produce are here.
- 2021 RCD Workforce Survey studies the role titles, descriptions, salary grades, and numbers of RCD professionals, and in relation to each of the four Job Series that will allow for better equity across institutions and longitudinal understanding of the RCD Profession. This survey was open in the Summer of 2021, with results shared via multiple publications and community presentations. Details about the creation of the survey and products are here.
See also the Career Arcs Working Group, which spun off to capture a framework of RCD career options based upon the trajectories of current RCD professionals and HR implementations.
Contribute!
The group is excited to welcome newcomers and meets on Friday at 1pm ET / 10am PT, occasionally skipping or switching to a fortnightly cadence. You can request to join or find out more by emailing the co-Chairs.
Current Working Group Members
- co-Chair: Ashley Stauffer, Penn State University
- co-Chair: Kimberly Grasch, University of Chicago
- Chris Reidy, University of Arizona
- Kirk Anne, Rice University
- Lauren Michael, Internet2
- Levi Dolan, Yale University
- Nandan Tandon, University of Central Florida
- Tim Servinsky, Penn State Harrisburg
- Ritika Giri, Northwestern
* We adopt this definition: Professionalization can be seen as having two strands. For us, one strand is concerned with the improvement of status in the academic research community. The other strand is concerned with the improvement of the capacity of members to enhance the quality of service which is provided. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/professionalization
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