Plan for tomorrow today: a model for data stewardship
Lars Schöbitz, professional data science educator, lecturer at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering
Thursday, 21 November 2024, 17.15 – external page Register now!
Standards for scientific rigor, Open Access, and reproducibility of scientific results are shifting globally. In Switzerland, the Swiss National Open Research Data Strategy was adopted in 2021. The guiding principles formulated in it and the associated action plan promote the most open handling of research data possible. Since then, significant amounts of funding have been distributed for different measures targeting Open Research Data (ORD) activities. One measure aims to establish the term "data stewardship" to support researchers in making their data and code more public, following international standards such as FAIR data sharing principles.
The talk by Lars Schöbitz will promote research practices that were applied at the Chair of Global Health Engineering (ETH Zurich). Establishing and implementing these practices was feasible by hiring a full-time data steward.
Lars Schöbitz will highlight the profile of one data steward and discuss the required skills and requirements for this role from his perspective. Using an example, he will share the approach to producing open data and code as individual research products and explain how they are separate from and sometimes can be more valuable than the scientific articles derived from them. The presentation will also discuss the establishment of a Data Stewardship Community in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector.
Lars is a trained environmental engineer, sanitation expert, and data scientist with over ten years of work experience. He has worked as a researcher and consultant for various organizations, including the Statistical Office at the Canton of Zurich. From his different experiences, he has concluded that good (research) data management cannot be learned through an online course only but should also be taught through hands-on experiences and positive, peer-instructed learning environments.
Today, Lars spends his time as a professional data science educator, with training provided to scientists at ETH Zurich, civil servants in Switzerland, and globally in the WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) sector. He advocates for open government and Open Science principles with a passion for effective collaboration and computational reproducibility.