Spotlight on: Luc Steinbuch

Every other week, the Thematic DCCs and the Data Steward Interest Group (DSIG) put the spotlight on one research data steward working in the Netherlands, to stimulate knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning.

What drew you towards the research data management field?

Making science more efficient and more accessible. And, more in general, helping others.

What is an activity / task of your role that you find yourself looking forward to?

Talking with colleagues and FAIR scientific programming, among many others.

What is something unexpected that you can offer help with, if a colleague reaches out to you?

Many smaller and bigger things. For example a well developed DMP template, created by the Wageningen Data Competence Center.

What do you think your community of research data professionals is missing?

Coherence. Also, data stewards often have many other responsibilities too, which doesn't leave them a lot of time for interaction with other data stewards. It doesn’t feel like a “community” yet.

What is a topic you would want to collaborate on with others?

In general, it is nice to talk with fellow data stewards, just to create the sense of connection and share daily data steward experiences. Sometimes the role itself feels a bit lonely. That is why I really enjoyed the in-person DCC Spring Training Days in Utrecht, for example.

Could you point us to a resource, learning platform, tool or similar which you find useful or inspirational?

We often talk about FAIR and open data, understanding "data" as collected observations. However, "data" in a broader sense includes more, for example also programming code (models, tools, etc.). And there are also ideas about how to make code as FAIR and as open as possible. A useful resource in this context, among many others: https://www.esciencecenter.nl/.

Get in touch with Luc: WUR profile

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