As part of the ACU’s work on open science, we are supporting a small cohort of early career researchers from member institutions in developing countries to attend a short course in the data science approaches and skills that are essential for 21st century research. The CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science will be held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, from 1-12 August 2016.

Our work on open science is concerned with supporting member institutions to master the required culture and skills to meet open science and big data requirements. Following on from last year, when the focus of the ACU Commonwealth Summer School – open to undergraduate and postgraduate students at member institutions – was ‘Data and the digital divide’, this year the ACU is supporting the CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science.

The mode of learning will be based on lectures plus extensive hands-on experience gained in labs with tutor support. Candidates are expected to have a basic understanding of statistics, namely how to compute summary statistics such as means, variance and hypothesis tests.

The CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science is organised by ICTP in collaboration with the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), the Research Data Alliance (RDA), and The World Academy of Science (TWAS). The ACU is one of a number of sponsors and funders working with the CODATA-RDA School to support the travel expenses of participants who do not have other sources of support. The ACU's contribution is solely to support early career academics in member institutions in developing countries. Support will be awarded on a competitive basis.

For further information, and to apply for participation and support, please visit the event page on the ICTP website. The deadline for applications is 18 April 2016.