First RDNL Stakeholder Forum

On 30 Sep­tem­ber 2025, Research Data Nether­lands (RDNL) host­ed its first Stake­hold­er Forum, at the seat of The Roy­al Nether­lands Acad­e­my of Arts and Sci­ences (KNAW) in the Trip­pen­huis in Ams­ter­dam. The event marked an impor­tant mile­stone in RDNL’s tran­si­tion toward becom­ing a nation­al train­ing and com­mu­ni­ty plat­form for data pro­fes­sion­als, sup­port­ed by Open Sci­ence NL fund­ing (2025–2028). RDNL’s mis­sion is to advance the imple­men­ta­tion and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty of FAIR and open sci­ence research by offer­ing train­ing, exper­tise and a strong pro­fes­sion­al net­work for those sup­port­ing research data man­age­ment (RDM) in the Nether­lands.

A shared effort to strengthen the data profession

More than forty par­tic­i­pants rep­re­sent­ing research insti­tu­tions, fund­ing bod­ies, infra­struc­ture providers, and oth­er key organ­i­sa­tions in Dutch research data man­age­ment joined the Forum. Togeth­er, they explored how to build a sus­tain­able plat­form that sup­ports life­long learn­ing, knowl­edge exchange and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment for every­one work­ing in data stew­ard­ship and research data man­age­ment (RDM).

Par­tic­i­pants intro­duced them­selves and shared their moti­va­tions for attend­ing — most as research data pro­fes­sion­als or project man­agers, eager to learn about the project’s progress and con­tribute to shap­ing its next steps.

“I was thrilled to see the vision for the Nation­al Train­ing and Com­mu­ni­ty Plat­form, as ini­tial­ly out­lined by the Nation­al Pro­gramme Open Sci­ence, begin­ning to take shape. It was both inspir­ing and ener­gis­ing to wit­ness so many pas­sion­ate indi­vid­u­als from diverse organ­i­sa­tions active­ly engag­ing in thought­ful, live­ly dis­cus­sions around co-cre­at­ing the Plat­form.” — Mar­ta Teperek, Pro­gramme Leader FAIR Data, NWO

From 3TU Roots to a National Collaboration

RDNL’s train­ing activ­i­ties have a long his­to­ry. They began in 2011, when the Data Intel­li­gence for Librar­i­ans course was launched with­in the 3TU (now 4TU.ResearchData) net­work. Over the years, this ini­tia­tive evolved into a nation­al col­lab­o­ra­tion between 4TU.ResearchData, DANS, SURF and Health RI, col­lec­tive­ly known as Research Data Nether­lands.

Togeth­er, these part­ners have built a strong foun­da­tion for RDM train­ing, includ­ing the wide­ly recog­nised Essen­tials 4 Data Sup­port and GDPR for Data Sup­port cours­es. These remain at the heart of RDNL’s com­mit­ment to pro­fes­sion­al­is­ing data stew­ard­ship and sup­port­ing the nation­al Open Sci­ence agen­da. 

Look­ing ahead RDNL envi­sions a nation­al train­ing and com­mu­ni­ty plat­form that fos­ters knowl­edge exchange and capac­i­ty build­ing across all sci­en­tif­ic domains. With fund­ing from Open Sci­ence NL (2025–2028), this vision can only be realised through active col­lab­o­ra­tion with the data pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­ni­ty and stake­hold­ers — pre­cise­ly those invit­ed to the first Stake­hold­er Forum.

A new website

One of the first vis­i­ble out­comes of the project is the launch of the new bilin­gual RDNL web­site, offi­cial­ly intro­duced dur­ing the Forum with a vir­tu­al rib­bon-cut­ting moment. The web­site serves as a cen­tral hub for data pro­fes­sion­als, fea­tur­ing news, train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and com­mu­ni­ty events in both Dutch and Eng­lish. Rather than cre­at­ing yet anoth­er source of infor­ma­tion, the site con­nects exist­ing resources and ini­tia­tives with­in the Dutch RDM land­scape. Future updates will be devel­oped in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners to ensure the plat­form remains rel­e­vant and respon­sive to evolv­ing needs.

The three pillars: Curriculum, Community, and Governance & Sustainability

Forum dis­cus­sions focused on the platform’s three cen­tral pil­lars, each crit­i­cal for its long-term suc­cess.

1. Curriculum

• This pil­lar aims to build capac­i­ty for data pro­fes­sion­als through train­ing and a nation­al com­pe­ten­cy frame­work, defin­ing the bound­aries of the nation­al cur­ricu­lum and inte­grat­ing exist­ing train­ing ini­tia­tives.
• Par­tic­i­pants empha­sised that RDM is con­stant­ly evolv­ing; there­fore, life­long learn­ing and peer exchange are as impor­tant as for­mal instruc­tion. Entry-lev­el stew­ards often lack an overview of avail­able infra­struc­ture and resources, while some researchers per­form data stew­ard­ship tasks “on the side” and could ben­e­fit from lighter, tar­get­ed learn­ing mod­ules.
• Next steps include work­ing with train­ing providers and devel­op­ing a badg­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pol­i­cy.

2. Community

Com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment is seen as essen­tial for cul­tur­al change in research data man­age­ment. RDNL’s com­mu­ni­ty approach cen­tres on map­ping, con­nect­ing and engag­ing exist­ing com­mu­ni­ties of prac­tice. Using the CSCCE frame­work, RDNL will doc­u­ment mem­ber­ship, activ­i­ties and man­age­ment mod­els to high­light where col­lab­o­ra­tion already exists and where new links can be made.

• Forum dis­cus­sions pro­duced sev­er­al insights:
• Inte­grate com­mu­ni­ty par­tic­i­pa­tion into life­long learn­ing.
• Build on what already works in exist­ing net­works.
• Ensure inclu­siv­i­ty by engag­ing pro­fes­sion­als less vis­i­ble in cur­rent dis­cus­sions.
• Offer refresh­er or reunion events to keep expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sion­als involved.
• In the com­ing year, RDNL will con­tin­ue to co-organ­ise events with part­ners to col­lect feed­back and share progress, with four annu­al project events planned — the first in ear­ly 2026.

3. Governance and Sustainability

• This pil­lar focus­es on cre­at­ing a viable gov­er­nance mod­el and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty for the plat­form. Forum par­tic­i­pants dis­cussed organ­i­sa­tion­al sup­port for data pro­fes­sion­als and iden­ti­fied poten­tial risks and enablers:
• The need for con­tin­ued advo­ca­cy to ensure recog­ni­tion of data pro­fes­sion­als’ roles.
• The impor­tance of remain­ing agile and adapt­able in a fast-mov­ing field.
• The neces­si­ty of organ­i­sa­tion­al buy-in at every lev­el to secure the platform’s future. 

Reflections and Next Steps

Across all dis­cus­sions, a shared vision emerged: the plat­form should not only deliv­er train­ing, but also serve as a co-cre­ative, nation­al ecosys­tem for data pro­fes­sion­als. Par­tic­i­pants expressed a desire for con­tin­ued, struc­tured involve­ment — for exam­ple, through an advi­so­ry or ‘cit­i­zen council’-like body along­side annu­al Forums and com­mu­ni­ty meet­ings.

At the end of the day, par­tic­i­pants were asked who else should be involved in the com­ing years. Their sug­ges­tions — visu­alised in the word cloud shown below — reflect the diver­si­ty and inclu­siv­i­ty RDNL aims to fos­ter across the Dutch research data com­mu­ni­ty.

RDNL will inte­grate this feed­back into the ongo­ing devel­op­ment of the three pil­lars and share updates through this web­site.

Continuing the collaboration

The first Stake­hold­er Forum high­light­ed the strong col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to advanc­ing data stew­ard­ship and Open Sci­ence in the Nether­lands. RDNL warm­ly thanks all par­tic­i­pants for their insights and engage­ment, and looks for­ward to work­ing togeth­er to shape a sus­tain­able, inclu­sive train­ing and com­mu­ni­ty plat­form for years to come.

For updates or to get involved, please feel wel­come to reach out via: info@researchdata.nl. Arti­cle re-post­ed from RDNL web­site.