Overview
2022-2024: The Comprehensive Research Data Strategy Task Force
The Comprehensive Research Data Strategy Task Force was convened to research, plan and author a comprehensive research data strategy for UNL, a holistic, university-wide approach to anticipating, managing and supporting the increasingly complex set of challenges that contemporary researchers face as they create, use and maintain research data. The purpose of the strategy is to enable and sustain groundbreaking research, scholarship and creative activity; maintain and grow institutional competitiveness; mitigate a variety of risks; and avoid redundancy of resources and effort, while anticipating critical gaps and identifying strategic directions for resources and investment. The Task Force was given a charge issued by the executive sponsorship to the Task Force membership upon launch in Fall 2022. In the first stage of the Task Force work, it focused on active research data storage, including human infrastructure factors that help researchers navigate the storage landscape.
Scope
The strategy encompasses the full research data life cycle, from project planning/pre-award to data archiving and preservation after active and/or sponsored project phases.
Throughout its work, the Task Force considered security, confidentiality and privacy, compliance, legal and ethical issues, and intellectual property and ownership, including NU system policies on research data and security.
The strategy focuses on both the technology infrastructures and the expertise (professional, human infrastructures) needed to partner to advance research, and strategies for sustaining and growing both.
Research data for the purposes of this data strategy is defined as digital data – from all disciplines, inclusive of big and small data. Management of physical specimens, such as collections or biological samples, as well as hard copy paper materials will be taken up beyond the scope of this Task Force.
This Task Force was not by itself an implementing group, although there was some overlap between membership and individuals in implementing service units. The Task Force offered strategies for making campus researchers aware of service offerings. Research data services resulting from the strategy must be commonly offered to all researchers, advertised and findable, transparent, synergistic, coordinated across service providing units and non-duplicative/non-competing.
Members
| Name | Role | Unit |
| Katherine Ankerson, Executive Vice Chancellor | Executive Sponsor | Academic Affairs |
| Sherri Jones, Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development | Executive Sponsor | ORED |
| Liz Lorang, Dean of Libraries1 | Co-chair | University Libraries |
| Jen Nelson, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research | Co-chair | ORED |
| Garhan Attebury | Member, service unit | Holland Computing Center |
| Tala Awada | Member, faculty/administrator representative | IANR, ARD |
| Ken Bloom | Member, faculty representative | CAS, Physics |
| Scout Calvert | Member, service unit; faculty representative | University Libraries |
| Adam Caprez | Member, service unit | Holland Computing Center |
| John Carroll | Member, faculty representative | IANR, SNR |
| Jennifer Clarke | Member, faculty representative | IANR, Food Science and Technology |
| Samodha Fernando | Member, faculty representative | IANR, Animal Science |
| Yufeng Ge | Member, faculty representative | IANR, Biological Systems Engineering, Plant Phenomics Core Facility |
| Toolika Ghose | Member, service unit | ITS, research computing |
| John Ferrin | Member, service unit | ITS, infrastructure |
| Carrie Heitman | Member, faculty representative | CAS, School of Global Integrative Studies, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities |
| Alian Kasabian | Member, service unit | ORED, research data liaison |
| Rebecca Lai | Member, faculty representative | CAS, Chemistry, Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience |
| Matthew Long | Member, service unit | ITS, security |
| Sam Mombou | Member, service unit | ORED, Sponsored Programs |
| Kristen Olson | Member, faculty representative | CAS, Sociology, BOSR |
| Frank Ordia | Member, faculty representative | Architecture |
| Sara Quinn | Member, service unit | ORED, Research Compliance |
| Doug Schultz | Member, faculty representative | Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior |
| Chungwook Sim | Member, faculty representative | COE, Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| Samyam Shrestha | Member, graduate student representative | Graduate Student Association |
| Can Vuran | Member, faculty representative | COE, School of Computing |
| Bryan Wang | Member, faculty representative | CoJMC |
| Lorey Wheeler | Member, faculty representative | CEHS, Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools |
| Catherine Wilson | Member, faculty representative | Law |
| Hongfeng Yu | Member, service unit; faculty representative | Holland Computing Center |
1Previous Dean of the Libraries, Claire Stewart, was among the executive sponsors at the time the Task Force was initiated. Liz Lorang, Task Force Co-Chair, is now Dean of Libraries.
2022: NIH Data Management and Sharing Task Force
In Fall 2022, a working group composed of some individuals who later became members of the Comprehensive Research Data Strategy Task Force developed a webpage to point researchers to resources relevant to developing data management and sharing plans. This effort was in part to help prepare campus researchers for the January 2023 launch of the National Institutes of Health Data Management and Sharing Policy.