Communications officer for the Digital Competence Centre (0.8 FTE)

The Center for Information Technology (CIT) of the University of Groningen is the leading university center in the Netherlands in the field of information and communication technology. With over 300 employees, CIT manages the necessary IT facilities and support processes for approximately 36,000 students and 7,500 employees. The University of Groningen (UG) is among the top 100 universities worldwide.

CIT supports and facilitates scientific research and university education with innovative data and IT solutions, consultancy and training. Our mission is 'Education and research: supported by innovative and reliable IT'.

In order to make a maximum contribution to the strategic objectives of the UG every day, CIT works in a customer-oriented way with 22 self-organizing teams in five domains: Education, Research, Organizational Systems, Basic Workplace and Infrastructure.

Our core values are: Respect, Collegiality, Together, Fun, Openness and Commitment

The Digital Competence Centre (DCC) and the CIT Communications team
The DCC is a collaboration of the University of Groningen Library (UB) and the Center for Information Technology (CIT) and aims to be the one stop support center for research IT and data. The DCC (consisting of ca. 15 professionals) functions as a front office, a network and a training center for all researchers and research supporters of the UG.
The DCC is still a relatively new brand within the UG and seeks a communications officer to structurally invest in the familiarity of the DCC products and services for the UG research population, which is very diverse and has a high turnover rate. As a DCC communications officer you will be a member of the CIT central communications team, but you will be embedded with the DCC. The CIT communications team will support you in your role, where they have the objective of establishing and implementing the overall communication strategy of the CIT and its different domains.

What will you be doing for the DCC?
The DCC primarily consists of data stewards that act as consultants. Data stewardship is a collective term for covering the tasks and responsibilities concerning the management of (digital) data in all phases of research. The successful and university-wide integration of data stewardship in research practice is one of the core responsibilities of the DCC. To this end the DCC explicitly aims to organize itself as a network: connecting researchers and research supporters and fostering an active community of ambassadors and contributors. As a communications officer for the DCC you act as the liaison between the DCC and its audience and as the moderator of the DCC brand through community support, event organization, content distribution, and digital engagement to build brand presence and trust, both online and in-person. You will closely collaborate with the communication teams of the UB and the CIT and join forces with them to efficiently promote research support topics that are relevant for both organizations, e.g. data management and protection, open science.
Because the position involves working with a new team in a new role, we are looking for someone who embraces “learning on the job”, is very proactive, and is able to self organize. Your job will vary from advising the DCC management on an operational level, being an active spokesperson for the DCC in different collaborations, to managing and performing daily hands-on tasks (editorial and content generation), needed for the promotion of the DCC in particular and UB and CIT research support in general.
As a member of the central Communications team and the DCC, you will be working at the CIT (Smitsborg, Zernike Campus), with frequent meetings at the UB (city center) and the faculties when relevant.

Tasks:

● for the DCC you are responsible and the primary contact person for PR, marketing, communication, events and take the lead in the development of graphical and textual promotional content
● you are responsible for authoring and implementing a DCC marketing and community plan
● you assist the team in building the DCC community and initiating collaborations across the university
● you seek out and act on opportunities to promote the DCC products, services, training programme and events
● together with DCC team members you develop a yearly event calendar and organize its execution
● you coordinate the DCC editorial board to optimize the DCC website and other information sources
● you design and manage DCC’s digital and printed promotional materials
● you are responsible for assembling and typesetting the quarterly DCC newsletter
● you are willing to generally represent the DCC in relevant meetings and presentations
● you actively seek collaborations and joint publicity with CIT and UB communication teams and others within the university
● you ensure that your activities are aligned with the objectives and activities of the CIT communications team of which you will be a formal member
● you participate in team activities of the CIT communications team.