Sufficient, high quality data steward expertise and capacity in projects and institutes is one of the necessities for FAIR data management in life- sciences and personalised medicine research. In a ZonMw funded project of UMCG, UMCU, Radboudumc, Radboud University and DTL, supported by the relevant national stakeholders, we are working to make the data steward function concrete, to create consensus on the function and required competencies and to develop tailored education. The overall project aim is to professionalise the data steward function within the life-sciences domain, with a special focus on the implementation of the FAIR data principles. All documents related to this project can be found on the Zenodo Collection “Towards a community-endorsed data steward profession description for life-science research”. This publication contains the first project deliverable: a matrix, that may function as the basis for a common job description of a data steward that is broadly supported within the Dutch life-sciences community. In the next phase of the project, this matrix will be complemented by knowledge, skills and competencies of a data steward, which will be translated into concrete learning objectives. These in turn will be used to develop an education line and training material for data stewards (including a design for an eLearning module). Sustainable implementation and alignment with existing education will be ensured.

This project is funded by the ZonMw Personalised Medicine Programme under Dossier number: 80-84600-98-3007. The project period is Aug 2018 - July 2019. Additional funding will be provided by UMCG, UMCU, Radboud University Nijmegen, Radboudumc and DTL/ELIXIR-Netherlands.