Professionalising the role of 'Data Steward' in the UK

This talk was delivered by Louise Saul to the Comunità Italiana Data Steward (CIDS) on the 26th Otctober 2026. Abstract: The Careers and Skills for Data-driven Research (CaSDaR) initiative is a 4-year UKRI funded project with the aims of professionalising the role of data steward in the UK and supporting reward and recognition for those who undertake data stewardship tasks in their role/s. CaSDaR has been active for just over a year and in that time has been working on developing a community through providing training and webinars, promoting recognition for the role through funding projects to demonstrate the impact of data stewardship, initiated work to develop a skills report and a career framework, and will soon be creating a Data Steward Association to continue formalising the role. This talk describes this work in more detail and addresses some of the challenges that the project has faced, as well as providing a glimpse into the future for the project. The work in this talk is from the CaSDaR project, a UKRI funded initiative, grant number UKRI 739.