Skills4EOSC achievements: shaping the future of open science training in Europe!

Written by Nida van Leersum (Skills4EOSC Training Coordinator)

Data Stewardship is one of the fastest growing jobs in the Netherlands. If we look at what is happening across Europe, the trend within research performing organisations is the increased need for professionalising data stewards. Today we can’t think of an open science ecosystem without data stewardship in it. It is no wonder that training and professionalising data stewards has been a hot topic in the last half decade. It is not only vital to duly recognise the importance of the role but also to retain good data stewards.

This is where the Skills4EOSC project (2022-2025) entered into the picture. Skills for the European Open Science Commons (Skills4EOSC), is a large European project aimed to advance Open Science skills by unifying the current training landscape in Europe.

Its aim was to address the lack of Open Science and data expertise, the lack of a clear definition of data professional profiles and corresponding career paths, and the fragmentation of training resources. 

4TU.Research Data joined the project consortium as one of the 44 partners across 18 countries to contribute to this project.  One of its key contributions was to develop a training curriculum for Data Stewards. 

Considering skills and competencies

The training curriculum is aimed at entry level Data Stewards and formulated after considering the minimum viable skills and competencies that are required by an entry level data steward. Through a series of community consultations, it quickly became clear that irrespective of the title or the placement of the role within research performing organisations, entry level data stewards across Europe demonstrate similar skills and competencies. 

Landscaping what already exists 

There are already a plethora of resources. The main goal was always to reuse and refer to existing materials rather than create something new. The landscaping exercise enabled us to review what exists but also bring to light what can be better. As a result of this analysis, certain topic areas have been given extra attention such as Research Software Management, Training Skills and Transversal and Soft Skills. 

Strengthening quality through constructive alignment

A key step in finalising this project was a thorough review of the training curriculum by an expert from TU Delft Learning for Life. Their role was to help achieve constructive alignment throughout, making sure that learning activities and instructor notes supported the intended learning objectives, and that each module formed a coherent whole.

Our training curriculum – what makes it different?

The final training curriculum (link: Guide for Instructors: Skills4EOSC Data Steward Curriculum – DataSteward Training Curriculum) has a total of 8 sections. Each section is divided into modules with learning objectives, learning activities, instructor notes and suggested resources. It is aimed primarily at trainers who can adapt the materials, make them their own, and use them to develop and deliver trainings for data stewards.

The curriculum is unique in that it is: 

• Fully open and accessible 
• Reuses existing materials and builds upon them 
• Designed using a FAIR by Design methodology (you can read more about this methodology here: https://fair-by-design-methodology.github.io/FAIR-by-Design_Book/)
• Adaptable to country/local context (multiple European perspectives)
• Developed after extensive consultation with the data steward community

Co-creation for success

It is hoped this curriculum will serve as a major resource for the development of training programmes for data stewards, thus contributing to the establishment of good data stewardship practices at European universities and other institutions. The resource is a result of a three-year co-creation between partners from across Europe. We hope that by sharing it openly, we have successfully provided a good starting point for trainers to reuse, modify and contextualise the materials to their local context. We envision the resource as a starting point, from which trainers can build their own unique learning programmes tailored to specific audiences. We hope that with more learning materials and trainings, we can meet the growing demand for trained and recognized data stewards in Europe.

Check out the project’s leaflet: Skills4EOSC – Data Steward Training Curriculum.

In picture: on 11 June, the Skills4EOSC Final Conference “Building Capacity for Open Science” brought together researchers, policymakers, trainers, and institutional leaders at Campus Condorcet in Paris.