City : Hamilton

Category : Other

Industry : Education

Employer : McMaster University

Should the successful applicant be a Unifor Unit 1 bargaining unit member, who meets the eligibility conditions of Article 19.02 of the Unifor Unit 1 Collective Agreement, then the Limited Term Assignment will be defined as a Career Growth Opportunity in accordance with Article 19 of the Unifor Local 5555 Unit 1 Collective Agreement.

Unit Description:

Established in 2000, the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) is a national research infrastructure for leading edge research and training in the quantitative social and population health sciences, creating social, economic, health and environmental benefits for Canadians. The Network supports a partnership between Canadian universities and Statistics Canada. Its mission is to enable quantitative researchers to address vital questions; train the next generation of highly qualified personnel in social and population health sciences; and contribute to evidence-based policy and decision-making by facilitating access to confidential microdata supported by state-of-the-art computing facilities. There are four key strategic pillars set out in the current CRDCN Strategic Plan (2024-29): data; community and capabilities; evidence-informed decision-making; and research ecosystem.

This national facility is run by a central management team based at McMaster University as the host institution. It is led by the Executive Director who reports to a national Board and at McMaster to the Vice President Research, who also serves on the Board. CRDCN is a distributed network, currently comprising 33 physical Research Data Centres (RDCs) based in Collaborating Institutions, each led by an Academic Director, whose roles and responsibilities are overseen by CRDCN. The CRDCN currently serves over 2,000 researchers and trainees in all 10 provinces.
 

CRDCN is primarily funded by federal and provincial government agencies—namely Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ)—as well as Statistics Canada and 33 Collaborating Institutions. The total budget from these and other funding sources in the current funding term is $80M (2023-2029). CRDCN is one of only 17 CFI Major Science Initiatives. CRDCN also manages additional CFI funding ($10M) to build an advanced research computing platform, which will centralize physical and remote data access to all RDCs via two Compute Canada data centres located at the University of Waterloo and Simon Fraser University. CRDCN’s central management team will take on new responsibilities to operate and maintain this advanced research computing platform upon completion of its build.
 

This position is funded by a grant from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada under the National Data Spaces Pilot. The CRDCN project involves developing a SSCAN (Social Sciences CANada Data Space) to support a wide range of data needs for researchers in Canada working with sensitive social sciences data.

Job Summary:

Responsible for managing the daily operations of multiple research projects ensuring that all aspects of project protocol are adhered to. Applies specialized knowledge to initiate, design, develop, coordinate, and manage major research projects across multiple sites. Develops collaborations and partnerships with research user groups.

Purpose and Key Functions:

• Plan and coordinate all aspects of multiple research projects across multiple sites.
• Develop inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional, and inter-sectoral research collaborations.
• Develop budgets for research projects.
• Troubleshoot problems at all stages of project development and implementation and assist with modifying protocols or project procedures to address challenges.
• Participate with a team in the development and authoring of research protocols.
• Recruit project participants and enlist agencies to refer participants.
• Review referrals and keep track of intakes from various referral sources.
• Develop an implementation plan for research projects.
• Design promotional strategies and related materials to encourage participation and support for the research project.
• Perform both quantitative and qualitative analyses of research data.
• Interview project participants.
• Facilitate focus group sessions with project participants.
• Coordinate and manage the collection, delivery, entry, verification, analysis, and reporting of data.
• Oversee the design of databases, data collection forms, error checking methods, and related programs for collection, analysis, and reporting.
• Apply specialized knowledge and scientific principles to review, critically appraise and interpret published literature.
• Write sections of scientific papers, funding proposals, and abstracts.
• Develop estimates of time and resources for research projects.
• Use statistical software to analyze data and interpret results.
• Write data management and operations documentation for projects.
• Liaise between the project centre and remote project sites and personnel.
• Ensure that the relevant research methodology is applied and all research material is handled in accordance with established protocols, policies, and procedures.
• Develop presentations and present information and training sessions to project personnel and project participants.
• Keep project participants informed of project progress through regular reports and newsletters.
• Implement and maintain research project budgets. Create financial projections and make adjustments to research project budgets throughout the fiscal year.
• Exercise appropriate controls, monitor, and reconcile accounts.
• Conduct literature searches.

Supervision:

• Supervise and direct the activities of up to 4 continuing employees.
• Ongoing responsibility for hiring and supervising 10 or more casual employees at any one time.
• Provide orientation and show procedures to others.

Requirements:

• Master's degree in a relevant field of study.
• Requires 6 years of relevant experience, including 1 year for full supervision.

Assets:

This specific role seeks the following requirements:

• Master of Library Information Science, graduate degree from an iSchool or equivalent training/experience
• 2-5 years' experience working with metadata, data modelling, digital curation or data stewardship
• Thorough understanding of metadata, standards, vocabularies and the broad concepts of digital archiving
• Skills to create, transform and move records to/from digital systems
• Ability to clearly communicate concepts to stakeholders from a variety of sectors and familiarity with data systems
• Ability to develop training/documentation for a variety of audiences
• Experience working with data systems and repositories
• Familiarity with social science research
• Bilingualism (EN/FR) is an asset

Additional Information

Key focus of this position:

The "Metadata and Curation Lead'' is a key role in CRDCN’s execution of its Alliance-funded National Data Spaces Pilot, SSCAN (Social Sciences CANada Data Space). SSCAN will explore the requirements of researchers and potential data depositors as part of developing a national data space for sensitive social science data. Working closely and coordinating with the Data & Policy Lead and the Lead Architect, this role will:

Liaise with the research and data librarian communities to understand the current state of metadata standards, file formats and deposit/stewardship arrangements across the social sciences research community, with a particular focus on data about education across Canada (education data provides a preliminary focal point, but all SS data will be eventually considered).

Organize and hold meetings and/or events to expand the community and progress consensus on suitable standards/vocabularies

Develop and deliver training on digital asset preparation, documentation, and other relevant areas as the needs of the community are understood.

Research best practice nationally in research data stewardship and access as well as best practice internationally in the management of sensitive social sciences data and the repositories / data spaces / digital archives that support that management.

Explore models for curation and archiving, assist with writing relevant policy frameworks, and chart a path for the project to meet Core Trust Seal requirements.

Develop a plan to ensure discoverability and FAIRness of the data space, and to ensure alignment with relevant Digital Research Alliance of Canada initiatives, such as the integration of persistent identifiers, DMPs etc.