Developing a Data Stewardship Community

Eleanor Warren - Research Services Librarian, University of Manchester Library.

Data Stewardship

Data Stewardship involves the formalisation roles and responsibilities, to ensure that research objects are managed for long-term reuse, and in accordance with the FAIR data principles. Data stewards can support researchers in a specific school or faculty with their research data management, acting as both a link to central services (eg. the Library, IT, information governance, etc.) and experts in data practices in the discipline(s) they support.

Initially, our work has explored models of data stewardship at other institutions. We are fortunate that this is a topic of interest internationally and that there are established external groups dedicated to developing Data Stewardship and its related roles within Higher Education and Research. Most notably, we have worked with the Research Data Alliance (RDA) as part of their ‘Professionalising Data Stewardship’ Interest Group, and also with CODATA to develop training for data stewards. You can read more from Bill Ayres (RDM Strategic Lead) about Making Connections with the Research Data Alliance.

Our Project

Over the past year we have been able to progress our activities through the development of a formal Data Stewardship Project. The aim of the project is to establish a network of data stewards and build the model for data stewardship across the University.

The project team hosted a workshop in Spring 2023 to enable stakeholders to shape the future of Data Stewardship at the University of Manchester. One priority identified was the need to facilitate communication between those working as data stewards, through meetings, events, and easy ways to connect with one another. 

We are beginning to develop a community of people at the university who are already working as data stewards or have data stewardship activities as part of their role. We hope participation will benefit individuals and their research projects, as well as provide us with further information about what is needed for the formalisation of data steward roles.

There is already a strong relationship between research data management and research software engineering at the University, which we plan to develop further through collaboration with the new Research Software Community.

Community Space We have created a new Data Stewardship Community channel within the Computation and Data in Research (CaDiR) Teams space. This aims to:

• develop awareness of the role of data stewardship and data stewards within research

• share resources about external networks, training opportunities, and events

• advocate for the benefits of data stewardship to research communities

• promote the professionalisation of data stewardship and the recognition of data stewards

• identify where data stewardship activities are already happening at the university and bring together people who work in related roles

• provide an online forum for those working as data stewards to share knowledge and best practices through peer support and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Get involved

To join the Teams channel simply visit the CaDiR communities webpage and request to join the CaDir Teams space. Your request should be approved very quickly.

If you have any data stewardship related queries, please contact me or the Office for Open Research Team openresearch@manchester.ac.uk.