Data Curator - Cultural Focus

The University of Manchester; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in Manchester is seeking a Data Curator Cultural Focus to advocate for best practices in research data management. The successful candidate will support cultural changes and the development of infrastructure for data archiving. This role offers engaging responsibilities and benefits including a market-leading pension scheme, employee wellbeing services, and exceptional annual leave entitlement. Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.

Benefits

Market leading pension scheme

Health and wellbeing services

Exceptional annual leave

Paid closure over Christmas

Local and national retailer discounts

Qualifications

• Experience with research data management and curation.
• Strong communication and engagement skills.
• Understanding of materials research and data infrastructures.

Responsibilities

• Assist the Royce community in managing research data.
• Develop and promote data archiving and retrieval infrastructure.
• Engage with materials research data initiatives.

Skills

Data management

Cultural change advocacy

Collaboration

Technical understanding

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent experience

Job description

Henry Royce Institute (Royce), a UKRI-funded national institute, supports advanced materials research and innovation. With its Hub at The University of Manchester, the Institute has spokes at ten Partner and Associate organisations: the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Cranfield, Oxford and Imperial College London, as well as at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the National Nuclear Laboratory and the Advanced Forming Research Centre Catapult. Royce's vision of 'advanced materials for a sustainable society' is delivered through:

• Enabling national materials research, collaboration, fore-sighting and strategy
• Providing access to world-leading facilities and research expertise
• Catalysing industrial collaboration and accelerating translation
• Fostering materials science skills development, innovation, training and outreach

Materials science is at the beginning of a necessary cultural shift that will see increasing use of materials informatics approaches. Critical to this is wider availability of the research data, stored in accordance with modern principles of open and reproducible research. This will require new data infrastructures (both hardware and software) and a change in the way that people work. Royce has a key role to play in driving this change in culture and practice and in advocating for support from government.

Following the completion of a series of short (four-month) pilot projects funded by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) we have started to establish processes and systems for the long-term storage of, and access to, materials research data. To implement, develop and promote a data infrastructure we procured funding to support two ‘Data Curators’ until March 2027 in the first instance.

The data curation team will initially consist of two curators, one with a bias towards technical aspects of research data management (Data Curator Technical Focus) and the other with a bias towards supporting cultural change and advocating best practice (Data Curator Cultural Focus).

This role is for Data Curator Cultural Focus and the post holder will be the lead curator for cultural and advocacy responsibilities. They will also support responsibilities of the Data Curator Technical Focus and there will be shared responsibilities core to both roles.

Overall Purpose of the Role:

1. To assist the Royce community in the shift to best-practice management of research data.
2. To help develop the data archiving and retrieval infrastructure and its functionality and capability.

The Curators will also be required to engage with national and international materials research data infrastructure initiatives. They will be expected to act as advocates for these new ways of working helping those of us who are enthusiastic for a change in culture, encouraging those who are suspicious of the benefits of storing their data for wider consumption to take part, and helping to find ways to lower barriers to adoption of best practice.

What you will get in return:

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit. Our University is positive about flexible working; you can find out more here. Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.