Facilitating Research Computing and Data Support at North Carolina State University

Libraries, research offices, and central IT organizations are increasingly working together to create robust services facilitating data-intensive research. In this session, we will share the story of a successful collaboration at North Carolina State between the University Libraries, the Office of Information Technology, and the Office of Research and Innovation to develop a research facilitation service (RFS) that provides guidance, services, and tools to support evolving research practices. Launched in spring 2022, the RFS provides a single point of contact to connect researchers to campus research computing and data services, ranging from data storage and management, high-performance computing, data transformation and analysis, and security and public access compliance requirements. The RFS team also monitors emerging technologies and areas of increasing demand to advocate for service growth at the university. The session will cover the strategic discussions that led to the creation of this service, an outline of the activities of the cross-institutional service design task force, and a description of the strategic roadmap for the service. Insights into the roles required to staff a research facilitation service, plans for phased growth of the service over time, and a discussion of the opportunities and challenges encountered while balancing the needs of clients with the capacity of service providers will also be explored.

https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/rfs

Presentation