A Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model for Strategic Decision-Making

Abstract

Research Computing and Data is changing at an accelerating rate, while the range of fields and disciplines depending on the cyberinfrastructure is expanding and becoming increasingly diverse. This poses significant challenges to academic institutions as they try to effectively assess and plan for the necessary support infrastructure to keep pace with the needs of researchers. We present a Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model that identifies the range of relevant approaches to fully support and enable research computing and data on campuses. This model allows institutions to assess their current capabilities, and provides structured input into strategic decision making, using a shared community vocabulary. We describe the background of the Model, key concepts and features of the Model and an associated assessment tool, initial experience in the community and lessons learned, and a roadmap for further development.CCS Concepts: • General and reference → Computing standards, RFCs and guidelines; Evaluation; • Social and professional topics → System management.

Advancing the Workforce That Supports Computationally and Data Intensive Research

“…Responding to this, Internet2, CaRCC, and EDUCAUSE collaborated with a diverse set of institutions to develop the RCD Capabilities Model (RCD CM). 10 The model and an associated assessment tool allow institutions to assess their support for computationally and data intensive research, to identify potential areas for improvement, and to understand how the broader community views RCD support. The Model supports a range of stakeholders and provides structured input to guide strategic planning and enable benchmarking relative to peer institutions.…”

Assessing the Landscape of Research Computing and Data Support

“…As an assessment team works through the tool, they may also identify specific aspects as an area of priority in their institutional planning and mark these as either Medium Priority or High Priority (these do not contribute to the coverage values and are just for local strategic planning work). For details see [7] and [4].…”

“…Many institutions would like to assess their capabilities in comparison to peers, and have traditionally lacked a framework (much less the data) to do so. The Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model (RCD CM) [7] allows organizations to self-evaluate across a range of RCD services and capabilities for supporting research, leveraging a shared vocabulary to describe RCD support. The Model supports a range of stakeholders and provides structured input to guide strategic planning and enable benchmarking relative to peer institutions.…”