Contact: Kathlin Smith
202-939-4754
Washington, DC, November 13, 2017—The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) two grants totaling $1,446,561 for 12 new postdoctoral fellowships in data curation for the sciences and social sciences.
A $521,200 grant from Sloan’s Energy and Environment program—its first to CLIR—will create a cohort of CLIR/Digital Library Federation (DLF) Postdoctoral Fellows in Data Curation for Energy Economics, a new area of focus for the postdoctoral fellowship program. Energy fellows will have joint appointments between energy research centers and libraries at four major universities for two years starting in 2018.
A $925,361 grant from Sloan’s Digital Information Technology program, which has funded research data curation fellowships since 2012, will help support eight new scholar-practitioners to take leading roles in the development of sustainable approaches to software and research data curation in the sciences and social sciences. These two-year fellowships are designed to expand professional development, education, and training opportunities in software and research data curation while establishing and evolving standards, best practices, and new approaches to the stewardship of data collections and related software required for scientific and social scientific inquiry.
“Both grants impel our efforts to improve data management practices and research capacity across all disciplines, and we are deeply grateful to the Sloan Foundation for its support,” said CLIR President Charles Henry. “The new program in energy economics allows us to expand the purview of our postdoctoral fellows program by encompassing a new, vital, and timely field of study.”
The fellowships provide recent Ph.D.s the opportunity to help develop research tools, resources, and services in data curation while exploring new career opportunities. Through these fellowships, CLIR seeks to raise awareness and build capacity for sound data management practice throughout the academy and to develop new models of institutional support for data curation.
As part of the fellowships, funds will be made available for collaborative research and development projects that the fellows conceive and implement. These projects will address cross-institutional issues and increase our understanding of the distinct needs of software curation and of data curation for energy economics, respectively.
The deadline for fellowship applications is December 29, 2017. Applications to host fellows in software curation are being accepted on a rolling basis.
The Fellowships in Data Curation for the Sciences and Social Sciences and Fellowships in Data Curation for Energy Economics are complemented by Fellowships in Data Curation for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and CLIR’s Postdoctoral Fellowships for Academic Libraries, launched in 2004.
The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning. CLIR promotes forward-looking collaborative solutions that transcend disciplinary, institutional, professional, and geographic boundaries in support of the public good.
The Digital Library Federation is a diverse community of practitioners who advance research, teaching and learning through the application of digital library research, technology, and services. DLF serves as a resource and catalyst for collaboration among digital library developers, project managers, and all who are invested in digital library issues.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grantmaking institution that supports original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economic performance. Funds for this project were provided through the Foundation’s Digital Information Technology program, which leverages developments in information technology to increase the effectiveness of scholarly research and public engagement with knowledge.