Tristan Martin
What is your role at the University and how does it involve the Data Stewardship community?
I am the Office for Open Research (OOR) Coordinator for data stewardship, essentially the first point of contact for all data stewardship related enquiries and issues at the University of Manchester Library and the project manager for the OOR Data Stewardship project. My role sits within the OOR Research Data Management team, and I lead on coordinating and developing data stewardship community and project activity.
I also lead on coordinating the Library My Research Essentials programme series ‘Research Data Conversations’ with a team of OOR colleagues which has recently started this semester, which aims at creating a regular event for the data stewardship community at the University of Manchester to come together, talk about research data issues and practices, and eat pizza over lunch (all vegan and vegetarian!).
Explain a little about the Data Stewardship project.
The Data Stewardship project is a collaborative initiative involving the University Library’s Office for Open Research, the Research Lifecycle Program, and the University’s research community.
The project’s goal is to help improve the way researchers at the University manage their research data and more deeply embed FAIR (making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible) and Open data (sharing research data in a freely accessible way when appropriate) practices within their research projects from the very beginning.
One of the ways of achieving this is to build and connect a network of data stewards—individuals actively engaged in managing, curating, analysing, and storing research data at the University of Manchester.
The purpose of the community is to promote and develop research data management best practice, share internal and external training events, and build a community of researchers where like-minded individuals can make helpful connections and meet potential collaborators.
We also want to expand and professionalise the University’s data stewardship network, exploring potential options for funding a team of professional full-time or part-time University data stewards.
What do you enjoy most about working in Data Stewardship?
Since starting on October 1st this year, the main thing I have enjoyed most is getting to meet and network with researchers face-to-face (also online if they prefer) and tell them about the exciting plans and ideas we have for Data Stewardship at the University of Manchester in the months and years to come. Secondly, but by no means less importantly, I have enjoyed listening to researchers and professional service colleagues talk about their own projects and research data management related issues. It has been rewarding being able to make connections with my work as the Data Stewardship Coordinator and putting them in touch with the many research data experts throughout the University.
What events will the community run?
We have started a series of events called “Research Data Conversations.” This is a collaboration between the Library’s researcher training programme, My Research Essentials, and the data stewardship community. We aim to hold four of these each academic year, with the next one scheduled for February.
During these events, someone working in a data steward or data related role at the University will give a brief talk on a research data topic of their choice. This will be followed by questions and conversation over lunch related to the talk and speaker, covering the broad range of research data and data stewardship topics.
The idea is to have a discussion rather than a lecture, and there will be an opportunity to continue conversations over lunch. These events provide a chance for people working in in research data related roles, and those interested in it, to meet in person and make valuable connections. We believe it’s important for conversations to be hybrid, allowing both in-person and online participation.
The first event in November with Dr Stavrina Dimosthenous, a Data Curator at the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, was successful and we hope to build on this success for the rest of the academic year. If you have topic you would like to present at one of these events, please let me know.
We have many more ideas for events this year, so watch this space!
Where can people find out more about Data Stewardship at the University?
You can find detailed information about data stewardship on the OOR website. This page outlines what data stewardship is and provides an overview of the Data Stewardship Project, its goals, and activities.
You also might find it useful to browse the services and guidance provided by the OORs Research Data Management team on their website.
You can also introduce yourself to the data stewardship community via the CaDiR Teams channel where you connect with like-minded people, find out about future events, and keep up to date with community activities.
Additionally, please feel free to email me with any questions, or contact me to arrange a conversation in person.
Fun fact about you?
How about ‘Two Lies and a Truth’ instead. 1) I was in a bar in Berlin on 9 November 1989 when the wall came down. 2) Tom Hanks once bought me a hotdog at Disneyland Paris. 3) I tend to make up things in ‘Fun fact about you’ sections.