Research Data Services and R2: challenges and opportunities

Research data services have been developed more sophisticatedly as data-driven research activities have been increased with funding agencies and publishers’ data policies and mandates. Ithaka S+R has tracked the trends of research data services across institutions of Carnegie Classifications since 2020. Ithaka S+R 2024 report reveals that libraries remain the largest provider of research data services in the U.S., but the gap between R1s and R2s shows wider. In 2020, R1 institutions exceed R2s by more than double the number of research data services offered. In 2024. R1 institutions offer approximately three times the number of services offered by R2s. Apparently, R2s are facing more challenges in terms of institutional investment, insufficient staffing, lack of technical expertise and the support of High Performance Computing (HPC), and more. How do R2s tackle these challenges? What is a unique role that R2s can play? This presentation will share the recent experiences in developing data services at a R2 university to shine a light on building data services for R2 institutions.