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Each of these roles covers eight key competence areas (see below). A single data steward may oversee all areas, or responsibilities may be shared across multiple data stewards. Some organisations also have department- or division-based data stewards who focus on local RDM needs while aligning with central policies. When assembling your team, consider which competencies should be covered internally and identify resources for any gaps.
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Policy & strategy. Development, implementation and monitoring of the RDM policy and strategy of the institute.
Compliance. Adherence to relevant codes of conduct, legislation and field specific standards.
Alignment with the FAIR data principles. Incorporating FAIR principles and open science practices.
Services. Availability of adequate RDM support in staff or services.
Infrastructure. Availability of adequate RDM infrastructure.
Knowledge management. Adequate level of knowledge and skills on RDM in the institute.
Network. Maintaining connections with aligned expertise areas and relevant organisations.
Data archiving. Adequate support and infrastructure for FAIR and long-term archiving of the data of the instituteinstitute’s data.
A formalised Dutch data steward profile has been adopted by many research performing organisations to professionalise data stewardship roles and create consistency across institutions. This profile is further detailed in Step 3.
Step 2
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- Determine the steward’s position in the organisation
Decide where the data steward will be based within your organisation. Depending on the structure and needs of your research team, a data steward may be:
Part-time within a central unit. Hired from a library, knowledge hub or IT team
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to support multiple projects.
Dedicated to a project. Embedded within the research team for hands-on data stewardship.
Department- or division-based. Assigned within a specific department or research unit to align local practices with institutional policies.
External support. Engaged as a consultant to cover missing competencies.
Some researchers may allocate their own budget to hire a data steward. Some In addition, some funders allow costs for data stewardship in the project’s budgetcosts within project budgets. If there is no budget to hire a dedicated data steward for a research project, you may consider using existing data steward support services in your organisation to guarantee that data stewardship is covered.The steward cannot be hired, check whether your organisation provides existing data stewardship support to ensure proper coverage.
For further details on data steward allocation, see the NPOS report on professionalising data stewardship in the Netherlands provides further information on both step 1 and 2 (chapter 2.3).
Step 3
Hire or consult your data steward following the formalised data steward profile adopted in the Netherlands. This contributes to professionalising the role of the data steward in the Netherlands and strengthens the career perspective of your data steward. The below areas indicate what a data steward potentially could know or do according to the formalised profile. More information on the profiles in the formal Dutch job classification systems can be found in the earlier cited report (Annex 5 and further).
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