Multiple related research teams?

Green DiSC
1

I’m planning on putting together a Green DiSC application from within the department of Earth Sciences at Oxford. However, because of our institutional setup it’s unclear to me if we should be applying as a “central” (departmental) team or as a single (rather heterogeneous) research group, or both. The department hosts many, mostly very small, groups that do research and at the same time has delegated responsibility for facilitating many (but by no means all) research services. It seems like we should be making an application as a collection of closely related teams sharing some answers (e.g. the computing inventory and e-waste streams are completely shared) but with some aspects broken out into the activities of different research groups (e.g. the pipeline inventory). Is this something anybody else has done or wrestled with?

2

At the risk of answering my own question - this came out in yesterday’s emailed newsletter:

If your group and other compute-intensive research groups in the same Department or Unit operate similarly (e.g. use common data resources, computing pipelines and/or infrastructure), there is now the option to apply for Green DiSC together! If successful, you will still get separate certifications for each of your groups, but you can now collaborate on a single application and reduce redundancies in gathering evidence.

A few things about this new application option:

  • It is only applicable to a small number of research groups within the same institution with closely related activities (we expect ~5 groups to be the norm for these).

  • The joint application should be put together by a working group of at least one member from each team involved.

  • In your application, you will be expected to demonstrate how you managed to still fully engage researchers on the ground in spite of the joint application format.

We recommend that you check with us early on to confirm that your circumstances are suitable for a joint application. To learn more about eligibility and how to apply for joint applications, check the revised guidelines for research groups here.