All hands-on desk – Data stewards to the rescue

Since the early 2000s, the open science movement has transformed the research landscape, pushing academics to embrace greater transparency, data sharing, and reproducibility. However, these practices have brought new challenges, particularly in balancing openness with data protection laws and ethical considerations. Researchers now face increasing demands to address issues such as drafting data management plans (DMPs), ensuring data security, and facilitating data reuse.

In response, new roles have emerged, with the data steward (DS) standing out as pivotal. DSs support the entire research data lifecycle, from creation and storage to sharing and preservation. Yet, formalized training for DSs remains scarce, with most practitioners coming from diverse backgrounds such as library science or research, without standardized certification.

To address this gap, the University of Lausanne launched Switzerland’s first Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Data Stewardship in October 2024. This CAS offers a cross-disciplinary core module, complemented by specialized tracks in life sciences and social sciences. As a key partner, the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS) naturally contributed to the cross-disciplinary module and took the responsibility of designing and implementing the social sciences module.

In this presentation, we will focus on the social sciences module, sharing our experience in designing training tailored to a not yet well-defined profession and participants with different backgrounds and experiences. We will also highlight the challenges encountered during its implementation as well as the benefits that a specialized CAS can offer.

We believe that the lessons learned from our pilot can be valuable to practitioners involved in RDM practices, particularly in relation to the new material developed for this data stewardship certification. These insights could also guide other institutions in developing training and certification programs, and in shaping the future of data stewardship in research.