Data Stewards Interest Group

Recent developments

In May 2023, the Data Stewards Interest Group (DSIG) joint forces with the NWO established thematic Digital Competence Centres for Life Science & Health (LSH), Natural and Engineering Sciences (NES), and Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Researchers and institutions work together in these network organisations to develop exchangeable and reusable data and software, with the associated competencies, for specific research themes.

Consequently, all information on the DSIG and its meetings can also be found at the thematic Digital Competence Centres website.

For background on the DSIG and its good practices, including tips for those interested in starting a similar community on a national, domain or local level, this article and presentation offer a nice to read.

History

In June 2017 the Data Stewards Interest Group (DSIG) was initiated by members of Leiden UMC, UMC Utrecht, and DTL. Initially the DSIG met every other month and was chaired by Daphne van Beek. The distinctive feature of this DSIG in comparison to other initiatives regarding data stewardship is the hands-on and solution-oriented approach for practical matters.

In September 2018, with Jasmin Böhmer (UMC Utrecht) taking over the chairing position for the DSIG, the approach and collaboration design were revised. The new approach included monthly virtual meetings of the task groups and face to face meetings every two months as DSIG.

With the popularity of the DSIG growing and steady participation numbers, from 2020 onwards, there are six virtual meetings over the year. To allow variety and include the various local activities on data stewardship, each meeting is organised and chaired by another organisation. The DSIG is facilitated by Mijke Jetten (DTL/Health-RI).

An extra initiative are the topical/Special Interest Groups (SIG) that may result from the discussion in the DSIG meetings.

Vision

To establish a community hub for data stewardship that enables informal and inclusive knowledge and experience exchange.

Mission

  • Providing a platform for data stewards and like-minded in the Netherlands (and abroad) to share experiences.
  • Fostering the (Dutch) national implementation of data stewardship.
  • Joining efforts to produce hands-on solutions.

How to participate

The DSIG is open to everyone who is interested in data stewardship and is not limited to a specific academic discipline (nor to the Netherlands, but it is the Netherlands based).

  • You can sign up to the mailing list, or the slack community if you love to be actively involved. We use the slack community to actively share events, ask questions, and share experiences.
  • You can participate in person or virtually at the general DSIG meetings. The link will be provided in the agenda of each general DSIG meeting.
  • You can participate virtually in an existing topical/Special Interest Group (SIG), or suggest a topic for a new SIG.

New series: Spotlight on, data stewards in the spotlight

Every other week, the Thematic DCCs and the DSIG put the spotlight on one research data steward working in the Netherlands, to stimulate knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning.

  • The first edition introduces Pedro Hernandez Serrano. “Data is not a resource to be mined, but something to be nurtured and learned from. Therefore we don’t need more ‘data miners’, we need more data stewards!”

We welcome data stewards for the next editions via this form. Contact Mijke Jetten in case of questions.

Meetings 2023

Meetings 2022

Meetings 2021

Meetings 2020

Meetings 2019

Meetings 2018

Materials and contact