News
Data Management: Data steward knowledge sessions
Since 2019, a network of data stewards have been appointed across Wageningen University and Research. This was in response to the report ‘Data Stewardship @ WUR: Advice on a role for Data Stewards’ that was presented to the Executive Board in the same year. The need to train this burgeoning network of data stewards was evident. The coordination of this task was assigned to the Wageningen Data Competence Center (WDCC), specifically to the Coordinator Data Management.
A small project team was formed comprising two data management support staff from WUR Library and the Coordinator of Education from the WDCC. This team was tasked with translating the tasks and responsibilities, as defined in the advisory document, to concrete learning goals.
Ultimately, a series of five knowledge sessions for data stewards at WUR were developed. The format was initially piloted at the Environmental Science Group (ESG), in collaboration with their data management working group. After a successful pilot, this series of knowledge sessions was organised separately for PSG, ASG, AFSG, and SSG (including WFSR).
A survey was distributed among participants after the Knowledge Sessions. Results show that participants were generally satisfied with the informative nature of the sessions. A next step is to collect new training needs of data stewards and set up a workshop agenda. All feedback will be incorporated into future workshops.