Dundee DiscouRSE FAQs

What is this project about?

This project, Dundee DiscouRSE, is funded by https://discourse-network.github.io/ to evaluate the use of the https://directframework.com/ as a method of identifying skill overlap, upskilling opportunities and potential skill-based career progression across the dRTP staff members within SMED.

What is a dRTP?

A Digitial Research Technical Professional, or dRTP, is someone who provides vital technical contributions to modern research. This can cover all manner of roles, such as software engineers, data engineers, librarians, project managers and output checkers. For more details on dRTPs, see https://discourse-network.github.io/who for more information.

Who is funding this project?

DiscouRSE (https://discourse-network.github.io/ ) is funding this project as part of their flexible funding scheme (https://discourse-network.github.io/funding/round-1 )

Why should I participate?

The School of Medicine (SMED) at the University of Dundee employs digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTP) in a wide variety of roles, at a variety of career stages, under various management structures, working on a large variety of research activities. Working on such disparate tasks and technologies can make it difficult to know how and when to collaborate with other dRTPs and how to progress one’s career from the seemingly unique position a dRTP finds themselves in.

This project aims to identify skill overlaps, upskilling opportunities and potential-skills based career progression for its participants. Ultimately, this project is aiming to empower dRTPs to collaborate, build inter-disciplinary networks and support dRTP career progression.

What do I have to do?

• Complete the sign-up form (Dundee DiscouRSE: Application of the DIRECT framework across multi-disciplinary teams – Fill in form)

  • This involves identifying 1 or 2 colleagues who could complete the DIRECT framework self-assessment about you

• Follow the link in the confirmation email to register an account at http://dundeediscourse.com

• Complete the DIRECT framework self-assessment at https://www.dundeediscourse.com/self-assess/

How long will it take?

The self-assessment takes 15-20 minutes but does not have to be completed all at one. You can log in at any time during the project and fill out more sections. It’s worth noting that not every section will be applicable to everyone, so you can just leave those sections blank.

Who will my self-assessment result be shared with?

Nobody apart from you and the project team will see your self-assessment results.

We will not publish any individual data, but will use this data to identify trends, skills overlap and training opportunities across the participants.

If the project identifies any potential collaboration and networking opportunities for participants, we will contact both parties for consent prior to making any introductions.

Why do you want to know who my colleagues are?

As part of this project, we want to evaluate how good the DIRECT framework self-assessment is. To do this, we want to compare your self-assessment with colleague’sassessment of you. Ideally, both assessments will give them same result, but any variance in responses will tell us a lot about the questions and how dRTPs view their own skills.

Can I see my colleagues assessment of me?

You will not be able to see your colleagues assessment of you, and they will not be able to see your self-evaluation. One the project team will see both assessments, and will only use them to compare the results to each other. Nobody else will be able to view either assessment.

I have a question, who should I contact?

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact James Friel via email (jfriel001@dundee.ac.uk).

Who is the project team?

The project is led by James Friel (jfriel01@dundee.ac.uk) and is being supported by Dr Christian Cole (c.cole@dundee.ac.uk)

I’ve changed my mind, I’d like to withdraw from the project

No problem at all, please contact James Friel via email (jfriel001@dundee.ac.uk) stating that you would like to withdraw from the project and we will remove you from the project and delete any information relating to you stored for the project.