Elise Dunham, Data Curation Specialist at the University of Illinois Library’s Research Data Service, has been awarded an RDA/US Data Share Fellowship by the Research Data Alliance (RDA). This May, Dunham will begin developing her proposed project to develop an organization-wide curation strategy for the RDA.

Fellows gain experience with RDA, an international organization that builds the social and technical infrastructure to enable data sharing. They also carry out individual projects proposed as part of their application. During her time as a fellow, Dunham will develop an organization-wide curation strategy for RDA. Like other large professional organizations, the RDA would benefit from a data management strategy to unite the efforts of its many internal groups and communicate RDA’s full body of work to external stakeholders.

“The RDA/US fellowship is a great opportunity for new professionals to engage meaningfully in the Research Data Alliance organization,” Dunham remarked. “I’m excited for my project because it will give me a chance to work with folks at all levels of the organization. Additionally, developing a curation plan for RDA will allow me to bring new perspective and experience to consultations with researchers needing data curation expertise at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.” Dunham started work at the University of Illinois Library’s Research Data Service in May of 2015.

The RDA Data Share Fellowship is grant funded through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and was started in 2015. A full list of data share fellows is available at their website.