Data is increasing in prevalence, size, and cost in all research areas, and this comes with the challenges of effectively managing, wrangling, and storing all this data. The people entrusted with these responsibilities are Data Stewards.
The N8 CIR is creating a network to bring together colleagues and to increase the visibility and recognition of data stewards across academia, as well as host events to help teach, share best practice, and network between members.
What is a research data steward?
Data stewardship is a broad term that encompasses a range of different activities in the management of research data. These include:
- Research data management planning
- Developing and managing data infrastructure and workflows
- Data wrangling, including data discovery, cleaning, validating, mapping, and mining
- Developing policies, protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) around the management of research data
- Data curation and preservation
- Creating high-quality metadata for research datasets
- Preparing data for publication or onward sharing, applying the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) to ensure good practice
- Delivering training around good data management practice
A data steward might be someone involved with managing research data through its entire life cycle, or may only have responsibility for a specific stage of a project. Data stewardship might be a consistent and defining aspect of their role, or an activity they engage in intermittently as required. A useful definition drawn from the Irish Data Stewardship Network, Sonraí, is that
‘Anyone who interacts with data in a significant way, at any point in the research data lifecycle, is a data steward.’
This will include, but is not restricted to, staff in research, technical, and professional roles.
Am I a data steward?
While there are some jobs that are comprised mainly of the tasks mentioned above (e.g. Data Librarian, Data Curator, Data Wrangler, Bioinformatician, Data Consultant, Data Specialist), there are many that have stewardship elements as only one part of the role.If you find that your role includes some (or many!) of the tasks listed above, regardless of whether or not this has been formalised as a part of your job description; if you often find yourself minding the project's research data; or if you’re effectively the ‘data person’ in the team, you can consider yourself a data steward.
Join the Network and Slack Channel
You can join the network by simply completing the form below. There are no expectations on members, but you can join the mailing list and/or Slack channel to meet, talk, and share with fellow data stewards across the N8. We look forward to seeing you around!
Join the N8 Data Stewards Network
Join the N8 CIR Slack workspace
If you are having trouble signing in, go to https://n8cir.slack.com/ and select the 'Create an account' link in the top right-hand corner using your university email account.
This workspace is only available to those currently working or researching at Durham University, Lancaster University, the University of Leeds, the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester, Newcastle University, the University of Sheffield, or the University of York.
If you are new to Slack, then please follow the link below to find out more:
Follow these links to watch sessions from the 2025 DRI retreat and read research data steward case studies. Please also consider using the link on the Case Studies page to share your work with the network.
Presentations from meetings
Case Studies