{"id":1253,"date":"2017-12-15T06:45:56","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T06:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/codata.org\/blog\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2017-12-15T10:03:09","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T10:03:09","slug":"the-next-generation-of-data-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/codata.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/15\/the-next-generation-of-data-scientists\/","title":{"rendered":"The next generation of data scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This post was written by\u00a0Sarah Jones. Sarah coordinates work on the DCC\u2019s Data Management Planning tool –\u00a0DMPonline<\/a>\u00a0– and undertakes research on\u00a0data policy<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0data management planning<\/a>. She has written several articles and book chapters on these topics, and co-edited\u00a0Delivering Research Data Management Services: fundamentals of good practice<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sarah is involved in several European e-infrastructure, coordination and open science projects including,\u00a0FOSTER+<\/a>,\u00a0EOSC<\/a>,\u00a0OpenAIRE<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0EUDAT<\/a>. She is also rapporteur on the European Commission\u2019s\u00a0FAIR Data Expert Group<\/a>. Her work in a European context focuses primarily on training and data management planning to facilitate open science and compliance with Horizon 2020 requirements.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The last two weeks have seen the first\u00a0CODATA\/RDA Research Data Science school<\/a>\u00a0in South America. We started the initiative in 2015, and after developing a curriculum to offer broad-based, introductory data skills to Early Career Researchers with a specific focus on those from Lower and Middle Income Countries, we ran our inaugural School at the\u00a0International Centre for Theoretical Physics<\/a>\u00a0(ICTP) in Trieste, Italy in August 2016.<\/p>\n

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From the start the Schools were a huge success, receiving hundreds of applications from researchers in a diverse range of countries and disciplines. We\u2019ve continually iterated on the curriculum based on student feedback and developments in the field. The event in S\u00e3o Paulo was an important first step to branch out to regional schools and develop local hubs of expertise. We hope the School in South America will become an annual event and will shortly be inviting applications to host one in Africa in Autumn 2018 as we\u2019ve had many requests from there as well.<\/p>\n

For my own part, the School has become one of the regular events I look forward to the most. The students are so enthused and keen to take the learning back to their institutions and colleagues that you really feel you are making an impact. Kevin and I have amended the Research Data Management curriculum over time, adding elements on FAIR data and new RDM services. We\u2019re also in discussion with Gail Clements who runs\u00a0Author Carpentry<\/a>\u00a0and Louise Bezuidenhout who teaches on open science and ethics, about how we can combine these three topics into one joint module for Trieste 2018.<\/p>\n

In S\u00e3o Paulo we were joined by Steve Diggs from\u00a0Scripps<\/a>\u00a0who put together an excellent data reuse lab. Students had to form mixed-skill teams and then review research papers for links to the underlying data. Donning their investigative deerstalkers, they then obtained the data and reproduced results. It was fantastic to see the determination and ingenuity displayed across the teams. They brought such creativity and inventiveness to the various pitfalls encountered, and the exercise drove home the message of why it\u2019s so important to make your data FAIR.<\/p>\n

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It may surprise you all to learn that these Schools are an entirely volunteer effort. Hugh, Rob, Ciira and I give up our time to plan, coordinate and teach on the Schools, and this would not happen without the backing of our institutions. The host organisations (ICTP in Trieste and UNESP in S\u00e3o Paulo) invest a great deal of time and finances to make the Schools run. They provide the venue, accommodation and catering, cover student travel and administer all the visas, and provide the most excellent local support when we\u2019re in town running the Schools. On top of that we receive a lot of small donations from too many organisations to mention. This covers the speaker travel and supports the helpers.<\/p>\n

This year we particularly want to thank\u00a0Springer Nature<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Wellcome Trust<\/a>, whose support enabled the helpers participation and allowed us to run a weekend session to let this new cohort of students know how they can get involved. Oscar, Sara, Marcella and Silvia (pictured below) have all participated in previous Schools and are now bringing back their expertise to help others. At the weekend session, Sara explained to a packed room how different it is being a helper and how much it enriches your learning. Students approach the tasks differently so you\u2019re troubleshooting a really wide range of problems and learning so much more about the technology by doing so.<\/p>\n

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The next two priorities are to increase the regions in which the Schools take place, and to move them on to a more sustainable footing which is not so reliant on volunteer effort and sponsorship. In 2018 we hope to run 3 Schools. One will take place in Trieste on 6-17 August 2018, and we anticipate others in Africa in Sept\/Oct and Brazil in December. As part of the CODATA Task Force we\u2019ll be reaching out to funders to seek support for a central office, and exploring business models to sustain the Schools. One idea is to run Schools in the USA and Europe with a delegate fee that is reinvested in supporting the Schools for LMIC. We hope to trial this in 2019.<\/p>\n

With this being the Season of Goodwill and people looking for opportunities to give back to community, I would encourage you to think about what you could do for the Schools. Are you in a position to help us to coordinate them, to teach, to host events, to sponsor or help us develop a robust business model? There\u2019s a huge demand for the training and we need lots of different inputs to make it scale.<\/p>\n

CODATA Working Group Co-Chairs<\/p>\n