Collaborative Research: CyberTraining: CIP: A Cross-Institutional Research Engagement Network for CI Facilitators

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and Arizona State University (ASU) are creating a cross-institutional research engagement network (CIREN) for cyberinfrastructure (CI) facilitators. The purpose of CIREN is to fill a critical gap in the development of CI facilitators by training current and future CI facilitators and expanding their ability to engage in transformational research utilizing high-performance computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

These highly sought after facilitation skill sets are difficult for many research projects to acquire. To address this challenge, CIREN provides and executes a framework that will recruit, train, and engage CI facilitators within multi-disciplinary, cross-institutional research projects, thereby increasing their impact and scope, and serving as an effective model to nurture an innovative research community.

This activity provides an entry point for novice facilitators and a sustainable career path for CI facilitators at academic institutions by increasing the availability of candidates as well as increasing the diversity of this talent pool through outreach, entry-level training, and peer-mentoring opportunities. CIREN elevates the role of CI facilitators in the research community and lowers barriers to their entry into the CI workforce.

CIREN implements a diverse facilitator pipeline, bolstered by training, mentoring, and knowledge exchange through organized community networking events that serves as an effective model to nurture an innovative research community. Network websites increase the visibility and recognition of CI Facilitators and connect them to researchers. Training and resource materials are available through an open repository.

CIREN recruits facilitators from broad and diverse communities including regional and national CI organizations, partner universities, and engages with national CI infrastructure via ACCESS. Through mutual collaboration, governance, and assessment, the CIREN project develops a CI facilitation model that is easily reproduced and adopted by other institutions to meet their scientific and research goals.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.