Curriculum for Data Professionals in Research-Performing Organisations in the Netherlands

Research Data Netherlands (RDNL) is a national coalition of research supporting organisations with a mission to promote the implementation and long-term sustainability of FAIR research data in the Netherlands: 4TU.ResearchData, DANS, SURF, and Health-RI. With these four partners, RDNL is an expert network combining knowledge, skills and infrastructure across all academic domains. The RDNL ambition is to facilitate the transition to Open Science by promoting the implementation of FAIR data stewardship in all phases of research. The RDNL partners provide training and expertise to help data professionals and researchers navigate the national and international data landscape, to enable them to choose the appropriate data services that meet the requirements of their specific research data. This document presents a baseline curriculum for research data professionals in the Netherlands. It was established by a dedicated task group within Research Data Netherlands (RDNL), in consultation with RDNL project members, a selection of training providers, and individual data stewards. It is the first deliverable of the RDNL project that aims to build a National training and community platform for research data professionals. This project is funded by Open Science NL as part of its work programme 2024-2025 in the area ‘Capacity building for Open Science’. The project started in January 2025 and will run for four years. The curriculum document will be updated at regular intervals after broader evaluation by key stakeholders. A final version will be published before the end of the RDNL project in 2028.