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Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe

Ashley, Kevin

Publisher
Zenodo
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17478388
Repository
zenodo.org
Language
en

Abstract

This video is a talk from the Data Steward Initiatives session at the CaSDaR Townhall Launch event on the 18th September 2025, in person at the Library of Birmingham and online. The presentation speaker was Kevin Ashley from the Digital Curation Centre. Abstract: European initiatives to support data stewards are increasing their focus on professionalising the role and embedding it within the Open Research and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data landscape. The EOSC Association complements this by offering a roadmap with strategic recommendations to enhance data stewardship training, career paths, and institutional recognition. Organisations collaborate to mainstream Open Science practices, improve research data management, and ensure that data stewards are equipped with the necessary skills and institutional support. Projects such as Skills4EOSC and FAIR-IMPACT have sought to provide resources to maintain research excellence. Ultimately, these coordinated efforts aim to elevate data stewardship as a recognised and essential profession within the European research ecosystem. Speaker Bio: Kevin Ashley is Director of the Digital Curation Center (http://www.dcc.ac.uk/) whose mission is to develop capability and capacity for research data curation worldwide. The DCC provides services for data management planning; advice and guidance; training; analysis and consultancy on all aspects of open science, data management and reuse. Kevin and other DCC staff also participate in international projects such as EOSCPilot, FOSTER+, promoting open research (fosteropenscience.eu.), and Skills4EOSC. Amongst other roles, he is also chair of the SSI advisory board. Kevin’s career has been spent in supporting research. At the Digital Archives Department at ULCC his team delivered services to organisations including the UK National Archives and the British Library, including the first service of its type in the world for government datasets, as well as the award-winning DPTP. His career began in a medical research unit devoted to innovative uses of IT in the support of clinical research and practice. More information on the event can be found here: https://casdar.ac.uk/event/careers-and-skills-for-data-driven-research-casdar-hybrid-event-launch/ A recording of this session is available on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/eBHCD5z91Hg This video is an output from the Careers and Skills for Data-driven Research (CaSDaR) initiative, a 4-year UKRI funded dRTP initiative, grant number UKRI739.

Full text

Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe Kevin Ashley – DCC Director Reusable with attribution: CC-BY The DCC is hosted by the Universities of Edinburgh & Glasgow and supported through income from the European Commission, UKRI and other sources 2025-09-18 Kevin Ashley - Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe 1 Why talk about this? •CaSDaR is rightly focused on the UK –But lots is happening elsewhere that could be of interest •DCC’s scope is global – knowledge transfer goes with that •Next few minutes – a summary of what we know –Probably some gaps. Let us know 2025-09-18 Kevin Ashley - Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe 2 •Most things we know of are national, but… –some cross borders –some are more local –Some in a single institution (e.g. Zurich in Switzerland) •Some are definitely data steward networks •Some are strands of activity as part of a broader national body/initiative 2025-09-18 Kevin Ashley - Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe 3 There’s variety •Latvia •Sweden – a national network that grew from a single institution •Nordic DSN •Ireland •Italy – nascent, tied to national competence centre 2025-09-18 Kevin Ashley - Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe 4 Data stewardship networks •Germany – activities coordinated by NFDI •Poland and Portugal – as part of national programmes on research data •Netherlands – at institutional, national, thematic level (DSCC) •Australia – similar to Germany (ARDC) •Austria – national funding for data steward roles •Globally – RDA WG Professionalising Data Stewardship 2025-09-18 Kevin Ashley - Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe 5 Other activities 2025-09-18 Kevin Ashley - Data Stewardship Initiatives in Europe 6 European Funding