Data stewards and curators

Ghent University has appointed data stewards and data curators to provide researchers from PhD student level and up with professional support for research data management (RDM) and curation..

  • The data stewards are your first point of contact for RDM questions. As advisors, they are here to offer you a helping hand.  
  • The data curators check and help improve the (meta)data quality and FAIRness of finalised datasets and software that you submit for archiving, publishing, and/or cataloguing.
Get in touch with us and follow our activities via @UGent_OS and https://osf.io/bhy8w. 

How can we help?

We offer a range of advisory, training, and curation services regarding (the management of) research data:

Who are we?

As data stewards and data curators we are members of the open science team within Ghent University Library (Boekentoren), which is part of the University’s Research Department.

We have experience with research and data in various disciplines, thus forming a team with complementary skills and areas of expertise.

Our group includes 1 coordinator,  5 data stewards, and 2 data curators:

Open science coordinator

Data stewards

We act as a main RDM point of contact for each of the 5 faculty clusters.

We aim to be as visible and accessible as possible within the faculties, for example through activities such as consultations with researchers, training, and other events.

  • Cluster Law, Arts & Humanities (Faculties of Arts & Philosophy; Law & Criminology): Thomas Van de Velde
  • Cluster Social and Behavioural Sciences (Faculties of Economics & Business Administration; Psychology & Educational Sciences; Political & Social Sciences): Ziad Choueiki
  • Cluster Natural Sciences (Faculty of Sciences): Paula Oset
  • Cluster (Bioscience) Engineering (Faculties of Engineering & Architecture; Bioscience Engineering): Stefanie De Bodt
  • Cluster Life Sciences & Medicine (Faculties of Medicine & Health Sciences; Veterinary Medicinen; Pharmaceutical Sciences): Laura Standaert

Data curators

About

Mission

Our core mission as data stewards and curators is to: 

  • Promote and facilitate good RDM practices
  • Contribute to a cultural change towards FAIR data, open data, and data reuse among researchers and the broader Ghent University community
  • Help improve the quality and FAIRness of Ghent University research data and software

Why do we have data stewards and curators at Ghent University?

Data stewards and data curators are typically seen as new types of ‘data professional’ focusing on the domain of research data management and curation. Their respective roles are typically to

  • Support researchers with RDM throughout the whole data lifecycle
  • Take on certain aspects of quality control for (meta)data submitted to data repositories and data catalogues (including the Biblio data register).

This has become necessary in a context where science is increasingly data-driven and collaborative, and where an evolving legal and policy landscape increases the expectations for researchers in terms of FAIR and open data. Moreover, data management and curation requires time, effort, and a range of specific knowledge and skills.

Therefore, professional support - tailored as much as possible to specific disciplines - is essential:

  • To raise awareness and help spread best practices
  • To help researchers navigate the data requirements of different journals, funders, governments, etc.
  • To help researchers improve the reusability of their data and software

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