29 November 2025
Tristan Martin, Open Research Librarian at the University of Manchester Library. He is part of the Research Data Management team and leads on the data stewardship project.
This article is based on a presentation he gave at the Careers and Skills for Data-driven Research (CaSDaR) Network+ Townhall Launch event at the Library of Birmingham on Thursday 18th September 2025.
The Office for Open Research (OOR), based within the University of Manchester Library, has long had an interest in developing a project focused on data stewardship. Central to this is recognising the significant (but often poorly recognised) contribution those working in data steward and research data professional roles make to the research community at the University. This interest predates the launch of the OOR in 2022 with exploratory research, a fact-finding trip to universities in the Netherlands, and engagement with Research Data Alliance working groups.
In April 2022 the OOR formally launched the Research Data Stewardship project, in collaboration with the Research Lifecycle Programme (RLP), a £5 million per year investment programme to deliver new products, services, and infrastructure to improve the experiences of The University of Manchester’s research community. The project had, and continues to have, ambitious goals:
- Promote and grow the awareness of data stewards and data stewardship as a higher education profession and research-related career.
- Establish and develop a data steward community to share training, resources, and best practice.
- Organise and promote within the research community at the University regular data stewardship events for the research data and data steward community.
- Explore organisational models as preparation for developing a full business case for a professional data stewards service.
These goals were developed collaboratively, with interested individuals and stakeholders from across the University, at a ‘Shaping the future of Data Stewardship at The University of Manchester’ workshop in 2023 coordinated and organised by the OOR.
One of the successful outcomes of this workshop was the establishment later that year of the Research Data Stewardship Community, an online space hosted by the Research IT (RIT) Computation and Data in Research (CaDiR) network of research communities and special interest user groups. At the time of writing CaDiR has 1363 members (staff and PGRs) across the entire network, with many groups providing online and in person events for members to connect with each other and share knowledge. For the data stewardship community, which I have been the group leader for since October 2024, this channel has been an important space to share resources, training opportunities, articles, news, and best practices on research data management (RDM), data stewardship, FAIR and open data principles, and data skills.
To develop this sense of community further we have established a series for the group, called Research Data Conversations (based on the format developed by Lancaster University Library). The idea for these sessions have a conversational format with the aim to explore themes and topics related to research data and data stewardship. As a thank you for attending and added incentive to stick around to the end and connect with like-minded colleagues, we provide a free locally made vegetarian and vegan pizza lunch (the pesto pizza being a particular favourite!).
We have explored a wide variety of topics in the five sessions so far, from electronic research notebooks and open data sharing for qualitative health research, to publishing in data journals and the FAIR principles in geospatial research data. We plan to host four more sessions this academic year, with a mix of online and in person. At an institution the size of Manchester it is not always easy to get the word out, and we are competing against many other demands on the time of staff and PGRs, but I’m happy with the impact it is starting to make. My advice to anyone else thinking of establishing a similar series or group at their own institutions is to not underestimate the costs in terms of the time it will take to plan and organise but also the time it will take to have an impact and for the word to spread. Don’t be discouraged if it takes quite a few sessions to get it right. When you do get it right, it will be worth it.
In addition, and to further promote and raise awareness of data stewards and data stewardship as a profession, we have written a workshop aimed at PGRs but open to all interested staff and researchers called ‘Introduction to Research Data Stewards: A Key Role in Modern Research’. Part of the Library researcher development programme My Research Essentials it takes attendees on a whistle stop tour of the world of research data stewards: what they are, what they do, and why we need more of them. We have only delivered this workshop twice, so it is very much still in development (aren’t they always?).
The most challenging aspect of the project so far has been making the case for a professional research data stewardship service. Over the past year, working with key stakeholders and colleagues, I have written a business case proposing a model of professional data stewardship split between RIT and the OOR that would enhance and modernise the RDM, FAIR, and data science support for researchers. This would comprise of a RIT research data science and engineering team (full credit for this element goes to Adrian Harwood, Head of Research Software Engineering) and a OOR research data stewards team each with responsibility for specific faculties. A new group to foster collaboration between these teams, RIT, the Library, and the existing data stewards community would also be formed to ensure each element of the research data lifecycle was being covered and to react collectively to any new issues emerging from the research community.
However, with budgets under intense scrutiny for understandable reasons, not every proposed measure will be materialising in the short to medium term. In the meantime, we are exploring new ideas in the OOR to expand our data stewardship advocacy with existing resources. The project will nonetheless continue to make the case for the importance of data stewards and data stewardship and why we need more of these data professionals in the UK if we are to make the transition to a FAIR and open data research culture a reality. We would not have got this far without senior stakeholder support, institutional allies, or dedicated team resource to drive progress.
So, my advice to others would to be to start making the case and look for these resources and allies now. This is not quick or easy but if not now, when?
Tristan’s LinkedIn and ORCID profiles.
The views expressed in this editorial are the author’s own , and not necessarily those of UKSG