How Can We Advance the RCD Profession?

Research Computing and Data (RCD) Professionals enable digital scholarship. As the importance of RCD Professionals has grown so has the need for organizations to support them and advocate for them. In this session, we discuss the road to a 21st Century RCD Professional society and work that the RCD Nexus is undertaking to build a Research Computing and Data Resource and Career Center. We will describe the community context and the roles that adjacent efforts currently play. We will look to the future of these efforts and engage the attendees to explore what these and other community efforts should provide to support RCD professionals as they work to advance research.

Our work is currently funded as an NSF-funded Cyberinfrastructure Centers of Excellence (CI CoE) pilot (award NSF-2100003 – https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2100003).  CaRCC was originally funded by NSF RCN award OAC-1620695 (PI: Jim Bottum – https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1620695) “RCN: Advancing Research and Education through a national network of campus research computing infrastructures – The CaRC Consortium,” and continues largely through volunteer efforts.