Signposting and other services

Signposting and other services#

Note

Sign-posting is an important part of Ask-JGI. Some queries may be better addressed by other university services, some of which are listed below.

Ask-RSE#

We also get emails from the currently dormant Ask-RSE mailbox. These queries are Research Software Engineering related and whilst this does have an overlap with the remit of the Ask-JGI helpdesk, we are not expected to be able to help with all of the queries and the researchers contacting us through this route should be made aware of this. If we’re able to directly support then we should.

Getting JGI Data Scientists Involved#

Occasionally, some queries will fall out of the remit of Ask-JGI PhD students but might be appropriate for the full time JGI Data Science/Research Software Engineering team. These will usually be more specialised data science tasks and ideally these will be approached with a buddy system approach, where the JGI Data Scientist/RSE attends with an Ask-JGI PhD student. Sometimes, these activities might just be signposting exercises, where the query requires specialist expertise from a researcher at the university.

Costing#

The other important type of Ask-JGI query are costing related. The Ask-JGI email is the one we encourage researchers to use when enquiring about costing out JGI Data Scientists, so any queries of this nature should be handled by the Data Science team (you could just post on the teams channel and tag the Ask-JGI Lead). The Ask-RSE mailbox also frequently receives emails of this type and those emails should also be passed on to the Data Science team.

Other services#

High performance computing (HPC) support. Email contact: hpc-help@bristol.ac.uk
The University’s HPC systems can be used to accelerate your computational research. High-performance computing (HPC) is the ability to process data and perform complex calculations at high speeds. Today, HPC is essential for many types of workloads, including AI/ML, physical simulations, and big data analysis.
Research Data Storage Facility (RDSF) support. Email contact: rdsf-help@bristol.ac.uk
The RDSF (Research Data Storage Facility) is designed for the secure storage of your University Research data in the medium to long-term. Each Principal Investigator / academic data steward at the University of Bristol currently receives 5 Terabytes (TB) of allocated storage on the RDSF to use across your multiple RDSF research projects.
Data science, coding/programming and other training. Researchers sometimes contact us asking about the training we offer in programming and coding. All the information about courses offered can be found on the University of Bristol Data Science and Research Software Engineering Training website. They can also email contact: jgi-training@bristol.ac.uk to enquire for more details.
Research IT provide support to UoB researchers in the writing of the technical aspects of bid applications and identifying ways software can realise their research goals. Can provide help with software or programming to support research on a consultancy basis. Research IT can be contracted to consult on projects for shorter durations than data scientists or RSEs (i.e. at a day rate). Email contact: research-it@bristol.ac.uk
Library Research Support: Support services in research data management, copyright enquiries, literature review. Email contact: lib-research-support@bristol.ac.uk

Signposting email text#

You can use the following to explain the available services to university staff:

Other resources are available for help with data science related queries at the 
Univeristy of Bristol.
- For help with coding or data intensive projects that may need advanced computational
  or storage resources the [Advanced Computing Research
  Centre](http://www.bris.ac.uk/acrc/contact/) deliver training courses in coding, 
  high performance computing and data storage. They can also be contracted to help 
  with longer term projects.
- For help writing the more technical aspects of grant proposals, as well as
  ongoing help with short-term projects, [Research IT](https://www.bristol.ac.uk/research-it/about) 
  are a useful resource.
- For help with research data management, literature search and literature reviews
  using advanced search tools, [Library Research
  Support](http://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/research-support/) is also available.
- If you have an idea for an interdisciplinary research project and would like
  funding to support a pilot, the JGI is happy to accept applications for seedcorn funding.
  
If you are not sure which service will be most helpful to you, Ask-JGI can speak 
with you about your needs.