Mapping data stewardship in Italy: Findings from the first national survey

Research data management plays a key role in ensuring research reproducibility and transparency by supporting data sharing in line with Open Science principles. Professional figures supporting data management practices, such as data stewards, are emerging in the international landscape, following different paths. The Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure, with the support of the Skills4EOSC project, conducted a national survey between April and December 2023 to map the presence, roles, and activities of data stewards or equivalent professionals across universities and research institutions, to provide an initial and systematic overview of the national landscape, which is known to be fragmented and lacking of clear professional recognition for research support professionals. The survey, administered in Italian through the EUSurvey platform, consisted of 13 closed-ended questions addressing institutional organisation, professional background, and support activities related to research data management. Data cleaning was performed on the 77 valid entries collected (out of 88 responses) before conducting the descriptive analyses. Results indicate that most institutions employ staff performing data management support tasks which map to the definition of data stewardship, though these professionals are rarely formally recognised with that title. Hence, the variety of job titles observed reflects the absence of a standardised professional profile. Among the data management support tasks investigated, the most common include FAIR data management support, data management plan writing, researcher training, and policy consultancy. These findings provide the basis to establish the Italian Data Steward Community in order to overcome the fragmentation through peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and support, and to advance the definition of a professionalisation pathway for data stewards in Italy. The findings of this survey can serve as a case study to help data stewards, research data professionals, and policymakers in other countries to map and understand their local landscape.