Stewards, Champions or Advisors? An overview of institutional Research Data Management support structures

Research funding bodies, publishers and institutions are increasingly recognising the importance of re-usable research data, but this is only possible with appropriate data curation and institutional support for researchers. In order to support the varied data practices in different disciplines there has been a growth in jobs helping researchers manage, process, analyse and share their data within particular disciplinary domains, often known as ‘data stewards’. How these roles are structured varies greatly by institution and this paper will focus on case studies of universities in the United Kingdom and Netherlands in order to explore the drivers behind these diverse structures, the institutional support they require and what is the most effective way of supporting good data stewardship. This is based on discussions with data stewards and other RDM support staff at a variety of institutions during summer 2018. These discussions will be used to develop an initial typology of Research Data Management (RDM) support structures. As well as providing an overview of a rapidly evolving field I hope that this paper will be able to provide suggestions for what types of RDM support would be feasible, appropriate, and effective at different institutions.