What research data services do campuses currently offer and are researchers aware of them? What funding models can support the costs of centralized data services? Where in the larger organizational structure should these services reside? How can institutions make informed staffing decisions to ensure the expertise needed to support current and future services?

As the need for robust, effective, and coordinated research data services on college campuses grows increasingly acute, these are some of the key questions members in our latest cohort project, Building Campus Strategies for Data Support Services, are currently exploring. The two-year research and consulting project, undertaken in collaboration with 30 higher education institutions, tackles the decentralized nature of current data service offerings and the economic inefficiencies, duplication of services, and programming gaps that emerge as a result. Combining action-oriented research with individualized consulting, the project will develop strategies for coordinating campus data support services to better meet the current and future needs of researchers.

We met with the first cohort on February 1. Today, we are thrilled to announce that our second cohort is now full, and we look forward to welcoming representatives from this group to join us for a kick-off later this spring:

  • Chapman University
  • Northwestern University
  • Oregon State University
  • Queen’s University (Canada)
  • Rutgers University
  • Santa Clara University
  • SUNY Albany
  • SUNY Binghamton
  • SUNY Stony Brook
  • The University of Delaware
  • The University of Florida
  • The University of Manitoba
  • The University of Victoria
  • The University of Washington
  • Georgia Institute of Technology

If your institution is interested in learning more about the project, please contact Dylan Ruediger (dylan.ruediger@ithaka.org).