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Deadline Approaching: Apply for CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science, São Paulo, 4-15 December 2017: Deadline 22 September

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Applications are invited to participate in the CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science which will be held at ICTP-SAIFR, São Paulo, Brazil, 4-15 December 2017.

Further information about the São Paulo edition of the CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science is available at http://www.ictp-saifr.org/?page_id=15270

To apply you must use the online form which is available here http://ictp-saifr.org/sis/datasci2017step0.php 

The deadline for applications is 22 September 2017.

 

Sponsor

Springer Nature is a global publisher dedicated to providing the best possible service to the whole research community. It helps authors to share their discoveries; enable researchers to find, access and understand the work of others; and supports librarians and institutions with innovations in technology and data.

To help authors and journals follow good practice in sharing and archiving research data, Springer Nature provides optional data deposition and curation services – enabling greater data sharing, compliance with funder policies and enhancing peer-reviewed publications.

Springer Nature also provides a free-to-use Research Data Support Helpdesk, which anyone can contact to get advice on research data – from which repository is best for your data, to how to write a data availability statement, to questions about licences for sharing data.

 
Financial Support

There is no registration fee. Limited funds are available to support accommodation, subsistence and travel support. For financial reasons, it is likely that priority will be given to travel support for students from the Latin American and Caribbean region, except in the case of particularly exceptional students.

Applicants from any region are strongly encouraged to look for alternative sources of funding to support their participation. For the recent CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science in Trieste <link> a large number of students were able to support their participation with funding from a variety of sources including their institutions, various grants, charities and sponsoring organisations etc.

 

Target Participants

The training provided by the CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science is primarily targeted at Early Career Researchers (advanced masters students, doctoral candidates, post-docs and young or early career academics).  The data skills taught are also useful for (data) librarians and other research support staff, such as those who envisage a career as data steward or data analysts.  Furthermore, people who are more advanced in their careers who would like to improve their data skills as a form of continuing professional development are also eligible.

 

For Your Application

Applicants are expected to have a baseline of data skills and these are tested by an online form.  In addition, applicants should pay particular attention to their personal statement and communicate persuasively their reasons for wishing to attend the School: how do they intend to use these skills, how will it benefit their research or the institution in which they work?  Finally, candidates should take pains to ensure that their application is well supported by references from their past or present tutors or line managers.  This is particularly important so that the School directors have confidence in the candidate and that the skills learnt will have the maximum benefit and impact.

About the CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science

What can justly be called the ‘Data Revolution’ offers many opportunities coupled with significant challenges. High among the latter is the need to develop the necessary data professions and data skills.  Researchers and research institutions worldwide recognise the need to promote data skills and we see short courses, continuing professional development and MOOCs providing training in data science and research data management.

In sum, this is because of the realisation that contemporary research – particularly when addressing the most significant, inter-disciplinary research challenges – cannot effectively be done without a range of skills relating to data.  These skills include the principles and practice of Open Science and research data management and curation, the use of a range of data platforms and infrastructures, large scale analysis, statistics, visualisation and modelling techniques, software development and annotation, etc, etc. The ensemble of these skills, we define as ‘Research Data Science’, that is the science of research data: how to look after and use the data that is core to your research.

The CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science has developed a short course, summer school, style curriculum that addresses these training requirements.  The course partners Software Carpentry (using the Shell command line and GitHub), Data Carpentry (using R and SQL) and the Digital Curation Centre (research data management and data management plans) and builds on materials developed by these organisations.  Also included in the programme are modules on Open Science, ethics, visualisation, machine learning (recommender systems and artificial neural networks) and research computational infrastructures.

The school has been successfully piloted at ICTP in Trieste in 2016 and 2017.  The vision of the CODATA-RDA Schools of Research Data Science is to develop into an international network which makes it easy for partner organisations and institutions to run the schools in a variety of locations.  The annual event at the ICTP in Trieste will serve as a motor for building the network and building expertise and familiarity with the initiative’s mission and objectives.  The core materials are made available for reuse and the co-chairs and Working Group team will provide guidance to assist partners in organising the school, in identifying instructors and helpers etc. The first school to expand this initiative will take place at ICTP-SAIFR (South American Institute of Fundamental Research), São Paulo, Brazil in December 2017.

Further information about the CODATA-RDA Schools of Research Data Science is available at https://www.codata.org/working-groups/research-data-science-summer-schools

Short Report on the First CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science, August 2016 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.835565

Programme for the First CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science, ICTP, Trieste, August 2016 http://indico.ictp.it/event/7658/other-view?view=ictptimetable

Materials from the First CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science, ICTP, Trieste, August 2016 https://zenodo.org/communities/codata-rda-research-data-science-summer-school/?page=1&size=20

Programme for the Second CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science, ICTP, Trieste, July 2017 http://indico.ictp.it/event/7974/other-view?view=ictptimetable