Aims and goals

Creating a Fellowship of FAIR Data Steward Ambassadors to increase capacity in Research Data Management across the UK.

In 2021, ELIXIR-UK was granted a UKRI award for the ELIXIR-UK DaSH Fellowship. The University of Bradford and Cardiff University co-lead the project with a delivery team at the Earlham Institute, the University of Manchester, and the University of Oxford. The project aims to embed Research Data Management (RDM) know-how into UK universities and institutes by producing and delivering training in FAIR data stewardship using ELIXIR-UK knowledge and resources, such as the RDMkit and the FAIR Cookbook. It focuses on building capacity and professionalising data stewardship while leveraging the local expertise within diverse UK institutions – creating a data management culture change from within the institutions.

Outputs

RDMbites

Short informative videos (3-5 minutes) – RDMbites – to describe basic and specialised aspects of RDM.

A Fellowship of Ambassadors

Build a community of Data Stewards with practical experience in contemporary life science data management in the UK. The project aims to recruit 20 Data Steward Fellows, who will act as RDM and FAIR ambassadors within their places of work, with a £3,000 honorarium (subject to tax).

Capacity Building

Develop and engage in delivering and designing RDM courses on-site and/or online.

Project sustainability

As part of this UKRI grant, we will investigate ways to sustain our training and the Fellowship scheme beyond the time scale of this grant (two years). This includes looking at ways to make data stewardship support, and careers, a sustainable and professional part of the life sciences. It also entails investigating ways to continue our Fellowship and training work beyond the reach of this project. ELIXIR-UK has partnered with the Software Sustainability Institute, which has a long-running successful Fellowship, to build this ELIXIR-UK DaSH Fellowship.

Funding

This project was funded as part of the UKRI Innovation Scholars: Data Science Training in Health and Bioscience call (DaSH). (MR/V038966/1)