Data Stewards Network UZH
About this Project
High quality (meta)data and accurate documentation of (meta)data and methods allow for more transparent, collaborative, and efficient research. As part of a swissuniversities project, UZH established a Data Stewards Network to support researchers in good and FAIR research data management. Data stewards are UZH researchers and employees who are interested in the FAIR handling of research data. Data stewards meet once a month to discuss topics related to FAIR and open data management. They form a network across various faculties and departments at the University of Zurich and are coordinated by the Open Science Services of the University Library UZH.
Challenges and Goals
A significant challenge in creating a university-wide network is that UZH has a very heterogenous research landscape with different faculties and departments working with different types of data as well as having very different research cultures. Our goal was to establish a network that is relevant to the interests of these diverse researchers and to which they are willing and able to commit time.
Results and Output
The Data Stewards Network launched in October 2023 and has since met monthly to discuss topics related to repositories, metadata, IT services and solutions, research centers and infrastructure at UZH, data protection and ethics, deidentification of data, and reproducibility in research. It is made up of 30 data stewards and represents both researchers as well as technical staff of UZH.
- Poster presentation at workshop by swissuniversities on P5 projects on data stewardship [download poster (PDF, 833 KB)]
- Poster presented at International Data Week 2023, Salzburg, Austria [download poster (PDF, 669 KB)]
- "Investing in Data Quality", Presentation at Lunch & Learn Open Science by Open Science Services, University Library UZH [download presentation (PDF, 1 MB)]
Impact on Open Science Practices
Through the Data Stewards Network, data stewards learn about good ORD practices from each other as well as from invited experts. This knowledge can be used to inform their peers and colleagues, as well as spread understanding of ORD and FAIR data among their research communities in general. Additionally, data stewards act as a bridge between researchers and university research support services. As such they can inform the central services what resources and infrastructure would be beneficial for researchers to be able to practice Open Science.
