Meeting skills demand for data stewardship

As research data management services evolve across the research sector, data stewardship is itself emerging as signifier of maturity (Cox et al 2017), and unfolding as a multilayered engagement which incorporates data governance, research integrity, repository management, training and advocacy of good data practices as well as technical solutions for the sharing and interoperation of data services globally. For organisations, the scope can increase exponentially, incorporating large scale technical infrastructure, faculty level administrative processes and a multiplicity of roles of people who manage diverse data assets, from research management intelligence to repositories of research data and other primary materials which underpin research. In order to meet the different skill demands across functional requirements of good data stewardship, establishing core competencies and supporting community development can help organisations identify their skill gaps. There are opportunities to use skills training to foster communities of practice which can have far greater impact than the sum of their parts. Pursuing this strategy could strengthen collaborative engagement of a national research data commons to sustain and transform the research sector.