Birgit Plietzsch, Research Computing Team Leader & Sarah Mechan, Research Computing Advisor

Research Computing Service

School of Biology away day, 12 September 2013

Contexts for the service

Vision

To provide innovative and advanced digital technologies and research computing services of nationally and internationally recognised quality and standards, which will facilitate research excellence at the University of St Andrews.

(Research Computing Strategy, http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/itsupport/academic/research/about/strategy/ )

Internal External

University, ICT, RC Strategies Funder requirements RDM Roadmap Academic workflows that require openness, transparency, (where necessary) longevity

The team

Dr Birgit Plietzsch

Research Computing Team Leader

2003

MA British and American Studies, Business Studies and Russian

Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, Germany

Dr phil. British Cultural Studies

Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, Germany

Swithun Crowe

Applications Developer (Research Computing)

2004

MA Philosophy

University of St Andrews

MSc Information Technology

Herriot Watt University

Sarah Mechan

Research Computing Advisor

2013

BSc Biotechnology MSc Bioinformatics PG Information Technology

University of Abertay Dundee

PG Statistics

Trinity College Dublin

Athos Georgiou

Applications Developer (Research Computing)

2013

BSc Computer Science BSc Maths

University of Louisiana at Monroe

MSc Computer Science

DePaul University, Chicago

Liaison services Development services

RC service provision

Research Computing Service Advice Research projects Infrastructure projects

Liaison services

Bridging the gap between different cultures and mind sets: • • • • research community and IT specialists in central services different professional language, expectations and working practises management of a research project usually requires a different, iterative methodology than a corporate IT infrastructure project having a more clearly pre-determined end point Leveraging expertise within and external to the organisation (coordinate ‘specialists’)

Research projects

Service perspective (pre-) application stage

• Development of ideas  Technical requirements gathering (software, hardware, technical development and data requirements) • Planning the Research Computing Service • Cost recovery

Project stage

• Confirmation of requirements • Technical development work • Storage and backup • Enabling access & sharing • Training

Post project stage

• Hosting of research outcomes  enabling access & sharing  enabling use & re-use • Technical maintenance • [long-term preservation]

Research projects

Funder perspective

Quality of applications Technical support / skill available to the project team • “This is an exceptionally well written proposal, setting out its general goals with clarity. The applicant gives confidence at every level, presenting few issues for thought or clarification. The digital outcomes are well defined, and supported by relevant resources and management. This is likely to produce a very successful resource, with usefulness to scholars and the general public alike.” • “The IT people will be very important in this project, and I don't know them, but certainly the on-line databases provided by St Andrews which I have used are reliable both technically and intellectually. It seems safe to assume, therefore, that this side of things will also be successful.” Institutional commitment / sustainability of project outcomes • “It is good to see the technical work being carried out in the context of an institutional commitment to the digital humanities, as evidenced by the University's Arts Research and Teaching Server and the support of the university's Research Computing Team.”

Research projects

Our expertise

I am writing on behalf of the AHRC to thank you for your outstanding contribution to the work of the Council over the past year. … We continually monitor the contribution made by College members. This is not only to maintain the quality standards of peer reviews, but also to identify College Members who have made a particularly significant and valuable contribution to our activities.

… [W]e feel that your contribution is worthy of special praise.

(Prof. Mark Llewellyn, AHRC Director of Research)

Research projects

Researcher perspective

“I can affirm without hesitation that the support that you have provided at a range of levels has been by far the most valuable that has been available to me.” “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you and Swithun for your continued support for this project. In fact I was thinking about it yesterday and really you have helped make it a much better project.” “I have found integrating images with text a very stimulating process which is greatly helping the research element of the project and my own traditional publications (forcing me to think things through in order to explain them clearly to the target audience!).”

Research projects: Current involvement

• • • • • • •

Funded projects:

A Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches – £487k, Art History, AHRC The Islamisation of Anatolia, c.1100-1500 – €1.3m, History, ERC Language-Philology-Culture: Arab Cultural Semantics in Transition – €1.5m, Modern Languages, ERC Victorian Science Spectacular – £28k, History, ARHC Publishing the Philosophical Transactions: the social, cultural and economic history of a learned journal, 1665-2015 – £800k, History, AHRC Defining and Identifying Middle Eastern Christian Communities in Europe – £250k, International Relations, HERA Scientists in Congregations – £800k, Divinity, John Templeton Foundation

• • • •

Formative Questions:

Data Quality?

Metadata standards?

Long-term repository?

Audience?

Funder Requirements

Hypothesise • • • • • •

Responsibilities:

Metadata Data Formats Data Cleaning Confidentiality Archiving Retrieval Data Re-use • • • • •

Tools:

Data Standards Masking Data Synthesis Agents Ethics Protocols Storage Protocols

Electronic Resources

Data Publishing & Archiving • • • • •

System Triggers:

Data Acquisition Restrictions Multiple Data Streams Collaborations Linkages to other Data Life Cycles

Systematic Storage of Outcomes

Hartter et al. (2013) PLoS Biol 11(9): e1001634. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001634

DATA

Data Discovery

Research life cycle

Data Collection Data Processing

Systematic Data Storage Data Analysis & Sharing Innovative ICT to enhance Research discovery

Any questions ?

[email protected]

Attribute University of St Andrews, images on slides 5, 9 & 10: www.digitalbevaring.dk