EDI Data Management Fellowship Program

Due to a change in focus, we are pausing the EDI Fellowship Program until further notice and will place our effort towards alternative approaches of supporting information management and data science in the community. We appreciate all of the recent inquiries about the Fellowship Program and apologize for any inconvenience due to our decision. Please subscribe to our newsletter for information on upcoming events and opportunities.

EDI Fellows 2019
Fellows and EDI team members at the data publishing workshop at UNM in June 2019

Overview

During the 2-month summer program, the Fellows receive training in environmental data management by EDI and gain hands-on experience through participation in data publishing with specific host projects, either remotely or on site. In agreement with EDI’s mission of accelerating curation and publishing of environmental data, the focus of the fellowship program is on:

  • Processing and publishing the host projects’ data.
  • Creating workflows that support the processing of data collections. See here for an example.

Further information:

Schedule

  • December: Application deadline for host projects (application form).
  • January: EDI host site selection.
  • February: Announcement of the program for fellow applications.
  • March: Fellow applications due. Host projects interview applicants and select a Fellow.
  • mid-June: Data publishing workshop for Fellows.
  • mid-June to mid-August: Engagement of Fellows with host projects, remotely or on site.

Project expectations

  • The Fellow’s project should focus on the topics listed in the “Overview” section above.
  • The host projects are required to provide the Fellow with access to data and personnel who are able to answer data-related questions in a timely manner.
  • Manual data entry should be limited to no more than 15% of the Fellow’s time.
  • All fellowship products must be published in the EDI data repository.

Information for potential Fellows

  • Informational webinar for potential Fellows will be held in February before the Fellowship Program.
  • The application process will begin in March, during which time applicants can apply for the host projects of their interest.
  • Undergraduate, graduate and recent postgraduate students are considered who are at least 18 years of age by the program start date, and must reside in and be eligible to work in the United States.
  • Fellows will be selected in an interview process by the host projects.
  • Each Fellow will receive a stipend of $6000 which will be administered through the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In case of an on-site fellowship the stipend will cover travel to and from as well as lodging at the host site.
  • The fellowship program requires full-time commitment to the training activities. No other employment is permitted during the fellowship.
  • The fellowship is preceded by a mandatory three-day online data publishing workshop held in June. During the workshop, the Fellows learn about data cleaning, metadata content, the Ecological Metadata Language (EML) and how to publish data in the EDI data repository.
  • Engagement of Fellows with host projects, remotely or on site from mid-June to mid-August.
  • Fellows are required to participate in bi-weekly online meetings with EDI staff, present their work at a final online meeting, and write a one-page report describing their work & results and how the fellowship benefits their professional development at the end of the fellowship program.