Purpose:
The Research IT Support Advisory Committee (RITSAC) provides a forum for researchers, research administrators and IT leaders to determine IT solutions of value to the research community across UBC. The Committee's conclusions advise the IT community about technology and service priorities to support the growth of the research enterprise at UBC. They also advise researchers and research administrators of possibilities created by information technology and UBC's IT services to help them optimize their work.
Objectives:
- Bring together researchers from a variety of disciplines with need for and opinions on information technology support for their work, as well as IT leaders from Faculties, UBC IT and other units.
- Establish an open environment in which participants can share problems and opportunities, propose ideas, debate merit and conclude on possibilities for technologies and services that should be investigated and developed further.
- Bring to the discussion needs and opportunities beyond the traditional High Performance Computing intersection of research and IT, such as collaboration solutions, visualisation technologies, common software tools, information security assurance and IT people support.
- Look for common support opportunities between research areas and attempt to develop models by which IT solutions can be established by the university to benefit multiple researchers in their work.
- Inform the researcher community of existing or emerging IT solutions to maximise the benefit to the community.
- Inform IT practitioners of needs and priorities of UBC researchers as well as of existing solutions in other parts of the university, and beyond, that may be applied in their local areas.
- Assist the VP Research with information about research optimization opportunities to influence discussions at the granting agencies concerning the funding of and accounting for IT support.
Discussion inputs:
- Current research priorities, major grant application plans and development of new campus facilities with a strong bias towards research
- Near-term needs of individual researchers and research communities
- Discussions at the granting agencies concerning IT support
- Existing information technologies and IT services at UBC
- Existing information technologies and IT services available at a regional and national level
Discussion outcomes:
- Opportunities to share existing, emerging and potential information technology solutions at UBC and other institutions
- Prioritisation for development of research-focused IT solutions and services at UBC
- Input to discussions with granting agencies
- Funding or fund prioritisation proposals to the university in support of research.
Membership:
The Research IT Advisory Committee is comprised of:
- Researchers from a variety of disciplines
- Jens Haeusser; Director, Strategic IT Innovation and Research Support
- Martin Kirk; Director, Office of Research Services
- Oliver Grüter-Andrew; Chief Information Officer
- Representatives from other major IT groups at UBC, such as MedIT and the Okanagan campus
Committee Chair:
The RITSAC will be chaired jointly by the Director, Office of Research Services and the Chief Information Officer. The role of the Co-Chairs is to:
- Schedule the meetings
- Set the meeting agendas
- Lead the meetings
- Ensure meetings are minuted and minutes are circulated promptly
- Ensure that agreed follow-up actions as documented in the meeting minutes are completed
Procedures:
- The RITSAC meets semi-annually or as required
- The RITSAC meeting agenda is prepared by the committee Co-Chairs with support from the Director, Strategic IT Innovation and Research Support in UBC IT, and working group chairs
- The committee can establish any number of working groups on specific topics that merit detailed investigation. Working groups:
- Are led by one of more permanent member(s) of the Committee
- Can involve any number of additional researchers and IT practitioners
- Are established for a limited period until a given topic is fully investigated
- Can be empowered by RITSAC to propose committee decisions or recommendations to the university executive
- Current working groups:
- Unified Data Centre Committee, chaired by UBC IT’s Director of IT Transformation