Data Stewards: Professionalisation, Value, Impact

This joint session of the RDA Data Steward Career Tracks WG (Career Tracks WG) and the RDA Professionalising Data Stewardship IG (PDS IG) focuses on the value and impact of the data steward profession. 

The session introduces the near final version of the data steward persona methodology developed by the Career Tracks WG and highlights some use cases. The methodology includes a persona template and a documented list of categories and related attributes that can be used to describe data steward roles and their organizational context in order to develop data steward personas. The WG outputs and use cases serve as a starting point for a discussion about data steward training, rewards and recognition for data steward roles, and developing business cases for data steward roles. Training, rewards and recognition, and business cases continue to be key drivers and challenges in professionalising data stewardship. These topics emerged again during the ongoing internal, community-based review of the PDS IG Statement of Work in 2026 (a process that started at VP26 and will be finalized by P27).  

The session contributes to the work of both the WG and the IG. The session includes two lightning talks on the data steward training and career development from leading initiatives in the Netherlands and the UK), followed by a co-creation session focusing on the recognition of data steward roles and their value in organizational contexts. The planned lightning talks and co-creation work showcase use cases/ adoption cases of the persona methodology that the Career Tracks WG has developed while also highlighting good practices from the data stewardship community. The  planned session provides the WG, the IG, and the broader RDA community an opportunity to come together to work on data steward training, rewards and recognition for data stewards and developing business cases for data steward roles – themes that remain central to professionalising data stewardship, as the on-going review of the PDS IG Statement of Work has revealed. The session thus fulfills the overarching goal of both the WG and the IG of developing and understanding the value and impact of data steward profession within the RDA community and beyond, including outreach to data stewardship communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.