Spotlight on: Efe Kerem Sözeri
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?
Open access. This was such a looked-down-upon matter about 15 years ago when I was doing my post-grad research. Now with the FAIR winds everywhere, I decided to come back to the campus to contribute in this field.
What is an activity/task of your role that you find yourself looking forward to?
Community building. Although I have a lot of groundwork tasks to be handled first, such as policy-making and training colleagues in my field, I am really looking forward to help build a community that is self-standing and organically growing in research support area.
What is something unexpected that you can offer help with, if a colleague reaches out to you?
I worked as an investigative data journalist for a while. So I can find things that are not supposed to be found 🙂 This already worked in one case, where the hyperlink to an old document was long lost, and we recovered it.
What do you think your community of research data professionals is missing?
More software stewards 🙂 Jokes aside, I really appreciate data stewards already giving much-needed software support in many institutions today. So, more the merrier!
What is a topic you would want to collaborate on with others?
I'm new at my post at Twente, and I've been reaching out to folks in other universities to learn from their experience. So please say hi, and teach me how you do it!
Could you point us to a resource, learning platform, tool or similar which you find useful or inspirational?
The Turing Way is a great resource if you'd like to gain more insights and train yourself in FAIR research software developments in our field.
Get in touch with Efe: University of Twente staff page | LinkedIn
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