Interview with Valentina Pasquale, IIT Research Data Management Specialist
The European-funded Skills4EOSC project, kicked-off in 2022, is now in full swing and it recently launched its Fellowship Programme. IIT is one of the Skills4EOSC partners and has been actively involved in the design and organization of the Fellowship Programme. Moreover, IIT is one of the available host institutions for Fellows, offering the possibility to spend up to three months in Genova working closely with our Open Science and Research Data Management team. We have met Valentina Pasquale, Research Data Management Specialist at IIT to ask her some useful information about the programme.
Could you describe this new Fellowship programme?
This is a unique chance for young Open Science and data professionals to learn and expand their contacts. Fellows will participate in a stimulating and enriching programme aimed at supporting life-long learning through knowledge and experience exchange across different institutions, fostering collaboration and capacity building. The duration of the fellowship can be up to three months, depending on the planned activities, and interested people can either propose their own project, aligning with the objectives and expertise of the host institution, or join an existing project proposed by the host institution. A fellow can also participate in an internship, actively engaging in day-to-day activities related to research data support in the host institution.
IIT is one of the host institutions. What kind of environment and projects candidates will find?
Our team is a group of enthusiastic people; we are really committed to disseminating the culture and values of Open Science and improving the current research data management process and tools. We have recently presented our activities in public Festival in Trieste and Genova, two Italian cities with a large population involved in science and technology. The future fellow will contribute in a very active way to our RDM service. We propose three projects, but we are open to new proposals. One project will deal with the creation of discipline-specific DMP templates; the other will focus on workflows and procedures for the collection of metadata and documentation, thus enabling FAIR-by-design data production; the third is more dedicated to vocabularies that are needed to integrate different disciplines in IIT Dataverse, our institutional research data repository.
Who is the potential applicant that you are expecting to apply to the followship?
The Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme is open to all data professionals in Open Science, including data stewards and other individuals involved in data support. Early career professionals are especially encouraged to apply. An important element to be considered is that applicants interested in applying for IIT must not have resided or worked in Italy for more than 12 months since February 28th, 2021. This will give the fellowship an international dimension. Each fellow will receive up to €5.000 to cover travel, accommodation, training costs, or any other direct costs related to obtaining outlined skills or the project’s goals. Their home institution must agree to cover their salary for the whole duration of the fellowship and explicitly state this commitment in a letter of support to be submitted together with the application.
What will be the contribution to the entire European project?
At the end of the period, the fellow will be required to participate in a final survey to provide feedback about the Fellowship experience. Additionally, he or she will need to submit a report detailing the skills and capabilities gained and offer suggestions for improvement, if any. Fellows will be also encouraged to join relevant professional networks, harmonized and sustained by national Competence Centers within Skills4EOSC, e.g. the Data Stewards Interest Group in the NL or the currently forming Italian Data Stewards Network.
When is the deadline?
The first call for applicants closed on October 31st 2023. The second round opens today 21st December, with a deadline on 29th February, 2024. Applicants will be notified of the decision within two months of the deadline.
For further info visit IIT webpage to check the expertise and objectives in Open Science and Research Data Management.
