A research team including Charlie Schweik and Brenda Bushouse of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been awarded $3.4 million in grants from the National Science Foundation’s Growing Convergence Research program for their project, “Jumpstarting Successful Open-Source Software Projects with Evidence-based Rules and Structures.”

For the past few years, a number of departments at UMass Amherst have been exploring different options for providing access to high-performance computing capabilities for scholars working with large, hard-to-wrangle datasets. Last year, the folks at Research Computing invited a handful of researchers to pilot-test a remote fast computing cluster solution (the “Unity Cluster”). The Unity Cluster has moved past the pilot stage, and is now in "beta" and open to a wider group of scholars. 

• Request an account
• Review and contribute to a growing collection of documentation

Mark Pachucki (Associate Professor of Sociology) was involved in the Unity pilot, and offers this introduction: 

QSR, the makers of NVivo qualitative data analysis software are scheduling virtual NVivo Research Network meetings to connect and discuss research methods with fellow researchers.

To register for the virtual meeting with researchers in New England, please see details below.

Next Meeting Topic: Using NVivo for Literature Reviews

This week, ISSR Director Joya Misra was one of the expert sources cited in the New York Times feature article on the COVID-19 pandemic's gendered impacts on faculty, and in particular the need for more thoughtful recognition in many institutions of the added burden of care that often falls to female faculty. Read the full story at The New York Times.

Dr. Misra is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she is also co-PI on the NSF ADVANCE program on Collaboration and Equity: The Resources, Relationships, and Recognition (R3) Model for Advancing Women and Underrepresented Faculty in Science and Engineering. 

COSSA provides a wealth of information to help social scientists follow the changing landscape of rules and resources at the federal agencies that fund social science research, as the government responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.

See the highlights of the current issue below, and subscribe to the COSSA Washington Update to stay abreast this of fast-changing context.