Libraries and Data Science Academy receive major consulting grant

Data science is an increasingly important element in all business sectors and facets of life. How can higher education better prepare students to engage meaningfully with data? In a new project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the NC State University Libraries and the Data Science Academy (DSA) are answering that question.

The project, “Models in Data Science Consulting in Higher Education: Disseminating Current Practices and Knowledge,” will produce a practical manual on how to provide data science consulting that can be followed at other institutions, as well as a white paper on the collaborative authoring of the manual. The $174,994 grant also provides resources for the dissemination of this information through presentations at conferences and professional meetings on these consulting topics. 

Overall, the project aspires to lay the groundwork for a more robust scholarly communication addressing data science consulting, further supporting engagement with data science across universities. The project is in talks with a publisher to produce the work as a short format monograph with an open access model, allowing immediate and widespread access to the work. 

Dr. Emily Griffith, Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of Statistics and the DSA’s Director of Analytics Consulting, is the principal investigator for the project. Griffith helped create the DSA, while serving as a fellow in NC State’s Office of Research and Innovation. The co-principal investigators for the project are Mara Blake, Head of the Data & Visualization Services at the Libraries, and Dr. Rachel Levy, Executive Director of the DSA and professor of Mathematics at NC State. 

This leadership team will review travel stipend submissions for conference presentations, lead and facilitate the writing retreat, mentor and advise authors, write the white paper on process, coordinate with the publisher for the manual, and write the grant’s final report.

Other team members will author and edit the manual and present the work at relevant conferences and meetings. These members include:

• Shannon Ricci, Data & Visualization Librarian, NC State University Libraries
• Joddy Marchesoni, Data & Visualization Librarian, NC State University Libraries
• Kate Freeman, Data Science Support Specialist, NC State University Libraries
• David Edwards, Professor and Chair, Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Virginia Commonwealth University
• MIchelle Thompson Gumbs, Senior Geographic Information Systems Specialist, New York University

The project builds upon a 2023 workshop series co-organized and hosted by the Libraries and the DSA and also funded by the Sloan Foundation. The Models for Sustainable and Inclusive Data Science Consulting and Collaboration in Higher Education Workshop Series focused on providing data science research support through consulting and collaboration models and developing policies and infrastructure to support robust, inclusive, and sustainable practices. Griffith, Blake, and Levy led the workshop series project, as well.

In this earlier project, a diverse cohort of experts in the field met virtually to discuss workshop topics and develop connections. Then, in May 2023, they met in-person at NC State to co-author articles on sustainable models that will serve as a reference for other academic institutions to develop and grow their own collaborative consulting practices. The cohort ranged from small liberal arts colleges and large universities to public and private institutions.