We warmly invite you to join this interactive RDA (Research Data Alliance) workshop focused on strengthening the professional ecosystem around data stewardship. Together, we will:

• Co-develop data steward personas to reflect the diversity of roles.
• Define core competencies and identify training needs.
• Design a data stewardship curriculum aligned with career stages and domains.
• Explore sustainable institutional models and career pathways for data stewards.

Our shared goal is to build a common understanding of the evolving role of data stewards and contribute to the development of a professional, well-supported, and sustainable data stewardship community.

Target Audience

• Data stewards, research data managers, librarians, data curators
• Research policy officers or those designing/careering data steward roles
• Participants from the Professionalising Data Stewardship IG and related RDA groups

This event is organised within the framework of the RDA Node Slovenia activities.

AGENDA
Session 1: Co-creating Data Steward Personas

Session chair: Liise Lehtsalu (RDA Europe)

Goal: Build shared understanding of the diversity of data steward roles using persona methodology.
Activities: 

• Introduction to the Career Tracks WG and its objectives
• Group work: identifying attributes of successful data steward persona(s)
• Compare and discuss overlaps, gaps
• Output: template for developing personas

Session 2: Designing a Data Stewardship Curriculum

Session chairs: Uroš Kunaver (CTK - Central Technical Library at the University of Ljubljana), Irena Vipavc Brvar (ADP - Slovenian Social Science Data Archives, RDA Node SI)

Goal: Define core competencies and training needs aligned to personas
Activities:

• Discuss training sources, curriculums and feedback received from attendees
• Map required skills for each persona
• Update existing curriculum (e.g., core + domain-specific tracks)
• Output: Curriculum map linked to personas and career stages

Session 3: Institutional Models & Career Pathways for Data Stewards

Session chair: Dunja Legat (University of Maribor Library)

Goal: Explore how institutions can sustainably support and professionalize data stewardship
Activities:

• Review institutional archetypes (centralized, embedded, federated models) 
• Match personas to service models and career pathways
• Group exercise: sketch job descriptions, promotion pathways, and team structures
• Discuss barriers (funding, recognition, contracts) and solutions
• Output: Service model maps + career progression blueprints