W5 - Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure

Effective management and curation of data is becoming increasingly important as researchers are required to make DMPs, share and preserve their data, and as techniques such as machine learning make the interoperability and reuse of data ever more vital. The Physical Data Sciences Infrastructure (PSDI) project is building technologies to help scientists to manage, process and share their data, but we are also aware of the importance of other roles in these processes. Data stewards are vital to help researchers to understand how to manage and curate their data effectively throughout the data life cycle so that it is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible (FAIR).

We know that data stewardship is a relatively new role for many and is often taken on in addition to other responsibilities. There are differing amounts of experience across the community: many in the role are learning these skills for the first time and are often on their own or within very small teams within an institution and may struggle to find colleagues to talk to about where to start and best practices. In this workshop we are seeking to provide opportunities for data stewards to come together to share their challenges, best practices and solutions, and to discuss how PSDI might be able to help provide skills and guidance for data stewards working with scientists in the scientific community.
We invite participants to bring along lightning talks about their various challenges, solutions or best practices or guidance and training that they may have developed whilst working with their researchers and colleagues. We will provide a brief background on the aims of the PSDI project and the communities we are currently engaging with and who we hope to work with in the future. We aim to have discussions to talk about the various challenges, needs and potential solutions raised and how PSDI might be able to help and provide a platform for sharing tools and best practices across the community.

Target Audience
Our target audience are those performing a 'data stewards’ role (even if only as a part of their job – for example librarians, researchers, project leads, and technical specialists). This workshop would also be relevant to those who are developing tools or processes that would be of value to this community.

Host or Publisher Digital Curation Centre