DATA STEWARDSHIP ON THE MAP: A STUDY OF TASK AND ROLES IN DUTCH RESEARCH INSTITUTES

Melanie Imming, Imming Impact,

FORCE2019, October 16th, 2019

Melanie Imming & LCRDM, visuals Wendy Dekker & ZonMw

National network of RDM experts

cooperation of all stakeholders in the Netherlands: universities, umc’s, uohe’s, research institutions NWO, KNAW..

IT

LCRDM: www.lcrdm.nl/en

IT

Financial

website, wiki platform, events for

knowledge sharing & dissemination

Pool of Experts &

Task Groups

Advisory group

Policy Support Researcher

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DATA STEWARDSHIP ON THE MAP: A STUDY OF TASK AND ROLES IN DUTCH RESEARCH INSTITUTES

Verheul, Ingeborg, Imming, Melanie, Ringerma, Jacquelijn, Mordant, Annemie, Ploeg, Jan-Lucas van der, & Pronk, Martine. (2019, May 6) http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2669150

Task group Datastewardship

Members:

Maarten van Bentum (UT)Mijke Jetten (RU)Nicole Koster (UT)Toine Kuiper (TUe)Jan Lucas van der Ploeg (UMCG)Gera Pronk (ISeeTea)Martine Pronk (UU)Saskia Rademaker (HHS)Marta Teperek (TUD)Marijke Verheij (RUG)Marije van der Geest (UMCG)

LCRDM coordination: Ingeborg Verheul (LCRDM), Boudewijn van den Berg (LCRDM)

Consultant: Melanie Imming (www.immingimpact.eu)

Advisory group:

Henk van den Hoogen (UM)Annemie Mordant (Memic/UM)Jacquelijn Ringersma (WUR)

Goal of the Task group Data Stewardship

Provide insight into what is currentlybeing requested, implemented anddeveloped within Dutch institutions for -and by- data stewards in order to createa basis for clearer job descriptions fordata steward roles.

How?

• Looked at (inter)national literature;• Mapped job requirements and competencies for

various data steward roles in Dutch institutions by analysing 22 vacancy texts;

• Did an online survey, which was completed by employees of more than 30 research organizations;

• Conducted interviews with eight data experts from the field.

Findings

UNDER CONSTRUCTIONMany institutions are currently working on professionalizing data stewardship. The situation is under construction everywhere. It is clear that data stewardship functions are no longer niche functions.

Findings

GROWTHThe ambition at many institutions is to increase the number of data stewards in the near future; in particular the number of data stewards with domain data specific knowledge.The fact that people at various positions take on all kinds of data stewardship tasks does not alter the fact that additional investments are needed for the professional organization of data stewardship.

Translation into practice

TRAININGInvesting in good basic education for data stewards and training programs for continuous training is necessary for a sustainable set-up of data stewardship in the Netherlands.

BROAD FUNCTION PROFILE More uniformity is good for securing better recognition and career prospects for data stewards. However, if new job profiles are created, the recommendation is to keep them broad. The focus on a division into task areas instead of well-defined job profiles can help in compiling new customized job descriptions.

Translation into practice

Task areas instead of roles

‘The generic or the operational data steward does not exist’

Task areas instead of roles

Usually there is one main data stewardship task area that can be identified, but there are always tasks from other task areas assigned to the role.

POOL OF EXPERTS

There is a lot of enthusiasm in the field for setting up a pool of data stewards, each with their own expertise, as a way to offer the correct (domain-specific) support. Proper embedding of data stewardship in the existing organizational structure is very important.

Translation into practice

Leiden University, data manager for several large-scale archaeological projects:

‘The added value of an embedded data manager is knowledge of data used in a certain domain, such as 3d models. Data stewards must nonetheless maintain a certain distance to preserve a sense of perspective of the working method that has evolved in a domain over time.’

Wouter Kool

POOL OF EXPERTS

Close cooperation is advised - also across different domains. The findability of the available support by researchers is essential. Employees must be easily accessible, and good community building and knowledge exchange are very important.

Translation into practice

Findings

PROFESSIONAL Professional data stewardship, close to the researcher, needs professional data stewards. This requires that everyone who takes on data stewardship tasks gets: • correct recognition, including accompanying career

perspectives, • appropriate training, • visibility and good embedding in the organization, • targeted coordination,• institution-wide policy.

Next steps

Work on tasks lists in further alignment with other initiatives.• Terms4FAIRskills Competences Working Group;• ZonMW project Towards a community- endorsed

data steward description for the life sciences;• Project of the Netherlands National Platform Open

Science Professionalising Open Science and Data stewardship training;

Next steps

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Introduction to the project

• Small Dutch project (Aug. ’18 – Sep. ‘19), The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), with in-kind contributions

• Aim: professionalise the data steward function, with a focus on the implementation of FAIR

• Context:- Lack of sufficient and high-quality data stewardship expertise- Lack of consensus on what a data steward is and does (function profiles)- Lack of tailored education, incl. certification

CC-BY-SA-4.0, Sangya Pundir, Wikimedia Commons

https://zenodo.org/communities/nl-ds-pd-ls

Next steps

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Data stewardship on the map

An exploration of tasks and roles in Dutch research institutions

Verheul, Ingeborg, Imming, Melanie, Ringerma, Jacquelijn, Mordant, Annemie, Ploeg, Jan-Lucas van der, & Pronk, Martine. (2019, May 6)

http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2669150

RDA: 23 things revisited

https://zenodo.org/record/3465896#.XaRdVmaxW3

Towards a community-endorsed data steward profession description for Life Science research

https://zenodo.org/communities/nl-ds-pd-ls

THANK YOU!