Skills, Role & Career Structure of Data Scientists & Curators: Assessment of Current Practice & Future Needs
Project Final Report
Project aims and scope
The project has three clear, interrelated aims:
- Examine and make recommendations on the role and career development of data scientists
- Examine and make recommendations on the associated supply of specialist data curation skills to the research community
- An assessment of the value and potential of extending data handling, curation and preservation skills within postgraduate and undergraduate curricula
The project scope is as follows:
- The focus of the project is on research data and the policies, practices and systems in place to manage it within universities and colleges, data archives or elsewhere in the UK
- The principal focus will be on higher education institutions
- The project will consider the full range of academic disciplines (natural sciences, biomedical, social sciences and the arts and humanities), plus inter-disciplinary work
- In recognition of the fact that different institutions give different job titles to people involved with data handling, curation and preservation, the project will focus upon the content of peoples’ role rather than their job title
- The geographical focus of the project will be on the UK, but will make reference to good practice elsewhere in the world where it is relevant and useful to do so