Call 1: Institutional Nomination for Carpentries Training seats

Nom­i­na­tions are now open for Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing seats under the Build­ing dig­i­tal skills train­ing and les­son devel­op­ment capac­i­ty in the Nether­lands NES domain (DC4NES) project, fund­ed by TDCC-NES and led by 4TU.ResearchData. This ini­tia­tive aims to strength­en dig­i­tal skills train­ing capac­i­ty across the Nat­ur­al and Engi­neer­ing Sci­ences (NES) domain in the Nether­lands by train­ing 50 cer­ti­fied Car­pen­tries instruc­tors. The project will run two calls: the first open from 4 March – 29 May 2026 for 30–35 par­tic­i­pants, with train­ing tak­ing place in Octo­ber 2026, and the sec­ond open­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2026 cov­er­ing the remain­ing seats.

Becom­ing a cer­ti­fied Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor enables you to teach foun­da­tion­al cod­ing and data sci­ence work­shops at your insti­tu­tion and beyond. Train­ing is con­duct­ed in Eng­lish by Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ers, on loca­tion in the Nether­lands. Each seat is val­ued at approx­i­mate­ly EUR 900. Cer­ti­fied instruc­tors are expect­ed to teach at least two Car­pen­tries work­shops with­in two years of com­plet­ing their cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Why nominate someone for Carpentries Instructor Training?

Our recent train­ing needs sur­vey across NES insti­tu­tions shows that local­ly embed­ded instruc­tors play a cen­tral role in sup­port­ing researchers’ dig­i­tal skills. The instruc­tors trained through this project will be core train­ers at their insti­tutes, sus­tain­ing and expand­ing train­ing capac­i­ty for years to come. For this rea­son, insti­tu­tion­al nom­i­na­tion and sup­port are essen­tial, we ask insti­tutes to nom­i­nate can­di­dates they are com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing in their train­ing role.

Beyond indi­vid­ual insti­tu­tions, the project aims to estab­lish Local Train­ing Hubs: col­lab­o­ra­tive net­works of geo­graph­i­cal­ly close research-per­form­ing organ­i­sa­tions that pool cer­ti­fied instruc­tors, share organ­i­sa­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties, and offer work­shops on a rotat­ing basis. This mod­el is designed to make dig­i­tal skills train­ing scal­able and sus­tain­able, par­tic­u­lar­ly for insti­tu­tions where esources are lim­it­ed. New­ly trained instruc­tors will be con­nect­ed to these hubs as well as to the exist­ing Research Soft­ware Train­ing NL (RST-NL) net­work, ensur­ing they can start teach­ing and remain active in the broad­er Car­pen­tries com­mu­ni­ty in the Nether­lands.

How this call was developed

The eli­gi­bil­i­ty and selec­tion cri­te­ria for this call were devel­oped through a trans­par­ent, com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven process. In late 2025, a sur­vey dis­trib­uted via the Car­pen­tries Coor­di­na­tors Net­work NL reached 69 respon­dents, pre­dom­i­nant­ly data stew­ards, research soft­ware engi­neers, and research sup­port staff from insti­tu­tions across the Nether­lands, most­ly affil­i­at­ed with the NES domain. Opin­ions on seat allo­ca­tion were divid­ed, with the most com­mon pref­er­ences being either dis­tri­b­u­tion across a selec­tion of insti­tu­tions and/or an open call mod­el. These results informed the two-call struc­ture: an insti­tu­tion­al nom­i­na­tion round (Call 1) fol­lowed by an open indi­vid­ual call (Call 2). Draft cri­te­ria were reviewed and refined by the Car­pen­tries Coor­di­na­tors Net­work NL. All cri­te­ria doc­u­ments are pub­licly avail­able.

How to apply

This first call is open to indi­vid­u­als affil­i­at­ed with NES-domain insti­tutes. Eli­gi­ble insti­tutes will be con­tact­ed direct­ly by Iri­na Motoc (Project Coor­di­na­tor, 4TU.ResearchData) to con­firm their par­tic­i­pa­tion and guide them through the nom­i­na­tion process.

Please read the doc­u­ments below care­ful­ly before apply­ing:

• Eli­gi­bil­i­ty Cri­te­ria: Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats — Call 1
• Selec­tion Cri­te­ria: Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats — Call 1
• Selec­tion Process: Car­pen­tries Instruc­tor Train­ing Seats — Call 1
• Method­ol­o­gy: Devel­op­ing Eli­gi­bil­i­ty and Selec­tion Cri­te­ria

Which pathway applies to you?

My insti­tute has a Car­pen­tries mem­ber­ship (e.g. Gold, Sil­ver, Bronze): Seats may already be avail­able to you; vis­it Train­ing in the NL – Research Soft­ware Train­ing NL to check and con­tact your institute’s Car­pen­tries Coor­di­na­tor direct­ly.

My insti­tute does not have a mem­ber­ship, or I am unsure: Your insti­tute will be con­tact­ed by Iri­na Motoc via the Dig­i­tal Com­pe­tence Cen­tre (DCC) and/or data stew­ards group. If you are inter­est­ed in being nom­i­nat­ed via this first call or if you are not affil­i­at­ed with a NES-domain insti­tute, we encour­age you to reg­is­ter your inter­est via your institute’s DCC — this helps us assess demand for sec­ond open call, com­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2026.

Questions?

For any ques­tions about the project or the appli­ca­tion process, please con­tact Iri­na Motoc (Project Coor­di­na­tor 4TU.ResearchData) at i.motoc@tudelft.nl.