Working at MERC

The work conducted at MERC depends on client needs - which leads the team needing to be responsive to a variety of circumstances. We may need to find validated survey questions on a specific topic or draft custom questions to ensure high quality data that reflects project goals; work with data that requires no additional work for analysis or spend weeks making the data usable for project needs; consult on data collection instruments (surveys and protocols); transcribe audio or video recordings; conduct large needs assessments for program planning; collect paper surveys from a large event and do data entry and cleaning before analysis and reporting; coordinate with IRB when applicable; work with researchers to produce results from unused datasets; conduct focus groups outside of normal business hours; receive data from poorly written questions and document usable results; create a two page fact sheet or a several hundred page report; finding public datasets to enhance information from already collected data; understand the analytic and ethical needs of working with data from a single respondent or almost a million rows of data. 

While we have expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods, we also love mixed- and multi-method projects. Although MERC staff have may have subject matter expertise, it is rarely applicable to client projects. Instead, we rely on client expertise for the relevant subject matter content, and we provide our knowledge and experience with data, program evaluation, and how to collect quality data from humans.  The majority of our clients are grant funded projects at UNL, but we typically have several active projects with state and community partners, as well as clients from out of state, and the occasional federal contract. We typically have around 50 active projects at a time and the majority of our analytic work is conducted in Excel, SPSS, and MAXQDA. We strive to produce deliverables that are accessible and understandable for a general audience. We have a culture of continual improvement, and have ongoing professional and skill development opportunities. 

MERC provides a range of employment opportunities related to applied data science including evaluation and data collection, analysis, and reporting. Openings for our full-time staff positions, such as Evaluation Project Associates (providing data support) and Evaluation Project Managers are posted on the UNL Employment Website when available.

We also regularly hire undergraduate and graduate students to assist with evaluation, research, and other methodological projects. These positions are posted on Handshake and are well-suited to students in social and behavioral science fields. The work involved is almost entirely driven by the needs of the active projects.