Stop building local empires and start building national bridges
“We aim to break down silos and promote collaboration within the DRI landscape by creating a more interconnected, open, inclusive, and user-friendly infrastructure. This involves fostering community engagement, promoting the creation of federated infrastructure, and ensuring that DRI funding addresses the technical challenges of operating across disciplines.”
The sessions are outlined below with suggested discussion points that may be addressed
09:45 - 10:30 REGISTRATION
Refreshments available
10:30 - 10:45 WELCOME
- Alan Real & Stewart Clark, Durham University
10:45 - 11:30 The Hidden REF
PANEL SESSION
Goal: Build awareness of the importance of DRI professionals within the wider academic community
Discussion Points:
- How aware are DRI professionals of the impact of their DRI colleagues?
- What impact do DRI professionals have beyond the lifetime of the project?
- What opportunities are there to increase the impact that DRI professionals have?
- What do DRI professionals actually do, and how do I involve them in my project?
- Where can I find a DRI professional?
Chair: Samantha Ahern, University College London
11:30 - 12:00 REFRESHMENT BREAK
12:00 - 13:00 Interconnected Professionals
ROUND-TABLE SESSION
Goal: Explore the role of professional societies or special interest groups in building a profession
Discussion Points:
- How aware you are of the roles and responsibilities of the other DRI professionals in your group.
- Where are the overlaps between your roles and when should you be advocating for redistribution of work
- How could future collaboration between your teams increase your impact?
- What opportunities are there for shared communities and special interest groups?
Facilitators: Sam Bland, University of York & Ric Campbell, University of Sheffield
13:00 - 14:00 LUNCH
14:00 - 15:00 Effective communication
ROUND-TABLE SESSION
Goal: Understanding communication hurdles between DRI professionals and researchers and how to break the silo mentality
Discussion Points:
- We have discussed the value of connecting DRI professions, but how do we improve communication between our silos? Are there any vocabulary barriers?
- How do we “sell” ourselves collectively to academics and project leads? Are there opportunities to do this with and without authority?
- Identify some common pitfalls to communication between technical professionals and researchers and the impact that has had.
- Discuss where successful communication has been an enabler for project success.
- Discuss the current landscape for methods of team and cross-team communication.
Facilitator: Jools Kasmire, University of Manchester
15:00 - 15:30 REFRESHMENT BREAK
15:30 - 16:15 United Federation of DRI
PANEL SESSION
Goal: Build awareness of federation activities - what works and where are the current gaps.
Discussion Points:
- What federated resources are available in your institution?
- What systemic challenges exist to a federated approach?
- Do you have any examples of approaches that have enabled federation of services, such as standardisation or knowledge sharing?
- What other approaches could be taken to share these?
- Can you map the FAIR principles to federation activities?
Chair: Santiago Molina Torres Arpi, ESRC