The Research Facilitation Service expands to serve the College of Natural Resources

The Research Facilitation Service (RFS), launched in April 2022 as a pilot program to serve NC State’s College of Sciences (COS), is now expanding to serve the College of Natural Resources (CNR) as well. Through a partnership between the NC State University Libraries, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI), the RFS provides a single point of contact for research computing and data questions.

The RFS strengthens communication among the many research service providers around campus, supports the continuous assessment of researcher needs, and offers advice on tools and technologies to researchers. The idea is not to add another service provider to campus, but to help each individual researcher connect with the specific providers they need.

RFS guidance helps researchers focus on their research
NC State offers a wide variety of computing and data services for researchers. Ranging from research data storage and high-performance computing to guidance around security and compliance requirements, and from data science and data visualization support to finding and acquiring public and licensed data sets, these services are scattered across the university. While it’s great to have so many options, it can be tough to narrow them down. And once you do, it's not always obvious how to get started or who to contact for help.

The RFS team, which currently consists of a service director, an RFS lead within OIT’s Research Computing unit, a research facilitator, and a research solutions consultant, cuts through the confusion by partnering with a variety of service providers across campus to address research computing and data questions, freeing researchers to focus on their research. With an ongoing search to recruit a research integration consultant, the team is growing.

“We are excited to begin rolling out the Research Facilitation Service to more campus colleges this year and next. By coordinating the network of expertise on campus, the RFS will play an integral part in supporting the University’s computational and data-intensive research enterprise,” notes Susan Ivey, Director of the Research Facilitation Service.

The starting point for specialized expertise
The RFS acts as a network of expertise to improve the awareness, coordination, growth, and effectiveness of services that support computational and data-intensive research across the university.

The RFS  accomplishes this in four main ways:

• Providing an effective, consistent, and efficient pathway to research computing and data services
• Consulting with researchers and other IT staff to analyze computational, data, and networking resource requirements, make recommendations, and propose design solutions 
• Connecting research computing and data service providers and offering a technical point of contact for research administrators
• Gathering feedback to advocate for resources to meet new and evolving needs

Contact the RFS
The RFS is currently only operational with the College of Natural Resources and the College of Sciences. The service will continue expanding its reach to other portions of campus in a phased roll-out throughout 2022-2023. RFS staff may be able to assist researchers beyond COS and CNR, contingent on the team's current capacity.

To contact the RFS, visit the RFS homepage and use the “Contact Us” button at the bottom of the page.

RFS team
Susan Ivey, Director
Moira Downey, Research Facilitator
Andy Kurth, Research Storage Specialist & OIT RFS Lead
Chris Blanton, Research Solutions Consultant

www.lib.ncsu.edu/rfs