CaSDaR July 2026 Newsletter!

A PDF of this newsletter can be downloaded here.

In this Issue

Our network+ coordinator’s leg seems to be in one piece again so this means that the newsletters are back! In our July newsletter, we keep you up to date on our activities, briefly discuss our training, take you through some relevant recent publications and talk about future events.

CaSDaR Activities

The CaSDaR team has been busy recently, sharing outcomes of our work and providing a platform to discuss the work of aligned teams and people:

• On the 23rd March 2026 Samantha Pearman-Kanza presented to the Portuguese Data Stewards Network in a session about Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs). She described her research background in ELN implementation and covered the importance of strategic direction in embedding ELNs as a productive tool to promote good data practices in organisations. Slides from Sami’s talk are available and if you’re interested in this work then also check out the Electronic Research Notebook (ERN) community group website. Sami Co-Leads this group, who have a shared interest in promoting the use of ELNs and ERNs to support the research process, through her work in the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) and join the Jisc mailing list;
• CaSDaR representative Dr Anna Korzeniowska teamed up with DrJulie Herniman from the ITSS and TSN at the TSN ROKS annual conference at the Crowne Plaza on the 27th- 28th April 2026 to host an exploratory workshop on supporting the significant Data Stewardship work that RTPs and technical staff undertake. Slides can be found here and a description of the event is in the Summer newsletter from the RSC’s Chemical Information and Computer Applications Interest Group;

• On the 30th April 2026, Dr Agnes Jasinska shared her experience in transitioning from a role of a researcher into the role of a Data Professional in HEIs and research organisations. She discussed supporting Data Stewardship with a growth mindset and why networks are so important. The recording can be found here and the report of the event can be found here;
• On the 22nd May 2026, Dr Jeanne Wilbrandt discussed how entered the role of Data Steward after completing a PhD then transitioned from working as an embedded Data Steward to becoming a Data Steward working in a transdisciplinary team. The recording and report can be found here;
• One of our key deliverables is to develop a career matrix for individuals who are looking to move into the role of Data Steward and develop a picture of what career progression looks like. So, we are delighted to be working with the STEP-UP network, an EPSRC-funded project to support strategic technical platform, to develop a career matrix for diverse dRTP roles. This working group met on the 1st July 2026 to start this work and we look forward to sharing this more widely for testing and feedback;
• On the 16th June 2026, Louise and CaSDaR’s Co-Investigator, Professor James Baker, presented at the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association 2026 annual event on the importance of professionalising the role of Data Steward, even in a sector that is under financial restraints. The slides are available here; and
• Louise and Sami travelled up to London on the 29th June 2026 to present at the STEP-UP conference for CaSDaR and our project partner, Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI), on the results from CaSDaR’s funding call and PSDI’s work on implementing ELNs.

We’ll keep people up to date on any activities that we’re doing via our website and our LinkedIn page.

CaSDaR’s Summer 2026 Training

One of CaSDaR’s aims is to ensure that those involved in Data Stewardship feel supported in managing data throughout its lifecycle. Training plays an important role in this, both to build skills and as an opportunity to connect with others, enabling knowledge exchange. When we advertised the £5k mini project funding, we offered training to the recipients; however, whilst organising it, we realised that we wanted to offer the training more widely to people who have engaged with CaSDaR.

We teamed up with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and Digital Preservation Southampton to provide training in the following areas:

• Principles of Research Data Management (RDM) -having a grasp of the basic guiding principles of RDM is key to developing your Data Stewardship skills therefore this workshop provided this foundational knowledge;
• Research Data Ethics – understanding the need for an ethical approach to data collection, storage, and ongoing access is central to the process of Data Stewardship. This session aimed to provide participants with the knowledge and practical grounding to handle sensitive data responsibly, ensure compliance with data protection regulations, and uphold the rights and dignity of research participants;
• Mastering Metadata – as research becomes increasingly data-driven, the quality and consistency of metadata play a critical role in ensuring research outputs remain discoverable, reusable, interoperable, and sustainable over time. This workshop responds to the growing need for practical metadata stewardship skills across the research landscape;
• FAIR data -as the rate at which data is produced and accessed, ensuring that data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) is an increasingly important concern for Data Stewards and has become the cornerstone of open science and responsible data stewardship. This session aimed to take participants from the foundational concepts behind FAIR all the way through to practical implementation;
• Data Selection and Preservation – in an era of ever-growing data volumes, knowing what to keep, how to keep it, and for how long is one of the most consequential decisions a Data Steward can make. Poor selection and preservation practices put research outputs at risk of being lost, inaccessible, or unusable over time — undermining both the scientific record and the investment made in collecting the data in the first place. This workshop sought to support participants to navigate this process.

Whilst we thought these sessions would be a good fit for the people who are interested in CaSDaR, we did not anticipate how popular they would be. All of the events are sold out, so we’ll definitely look to repeat a training run!

Recent Publications

Here at CaSDaR’s offices, Cassie loves hearing about work that other groups have been doing, so we wanted to share a few of the recent releases that Cassie has enjoyed.

• CaSDaR’s project partners, the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) recently published their STAR report. This report is the result of work to understand the implementation of the principles of the 2016 Concordat on Open Research. The report highlights current activities but also acknowledges the existing barriers to implementing best practices.
• Cassie constantly advocates for appropriate Digital Preservation, so she was pleased to see the recent release from the Digital Preservation Coalition of the Digital Preservation Advocacy Toolkit. This release provides a set of easy to re-use resources that users can flexibly use within their own organisational setting, and is key to support individuals in using the relevant terminology and frameworks to advocate for preservation.

Cassie’s Corner

Cassie is reflecting on the environmental effect of data access and storage; of particular effect is Dark Data – data that is collected and processed only once, then stored indefinitely. Redundant, Obsolete or Trivial (ROT) data compounds this issue. This study estimates that up to 55% of data stored by companies may be dark data and 30% of data in organisations may be ROT data.

Cassie thinks that an important step in researchers’ processes must be identifying Dark Data and ROT data and creating a strategy to manage and delete it when appropriate.

Future Events

We’re very excited to announce some upcoming events, from us, project partners, and others that are relevant to the CaSDaR community:

• CaSDaR is pleased to announce that registration for our two day conference on the 17th-18th November 2026 is now open! Visit our website and on the Eventbrite page;
• Health Data Research UK provide key information about accessing Trusted Research Environments (TREs) for healthcare research. On the 20th July 2026, 13.30-15.00 BST, they’re running a webinar on the use of AI in healthcare in Scotland;
• The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) project aims to create an environment for European researchers to produce, share and reuse FAIR data. Whilst UK-based organisations and individuals have been part of EOSC projects, there is currently no EOSC node. The PATH2EOSC project, a collaboration between CaSDaR project partner Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and Jisc, aims to explore the creation of a UK EOSC node. The event, ’PATH2EOSC: Use Case Development Workshop’, seeks to present existing use cases and gather information on how this could look in the UK. Tickets to attend this event are available on eventbrite;
• Whilst CaSDaR has a focus on promoting Data Stewardship in the UK we are very interested in working with international communities, so we were so excited to hear about the Fellowship of the Data. This event, on the 21st-22nd September 2026 in Vienna, brings together RDM professionals and Data Stewards from across the globe to strengthen community ties and promote knowledge exchange. Registration is available here; and
• CaSDaR’s project partners, DCC, are organising the 21st annual International Digital Curation Conference in Lisbon, Portugal on the 9th-12th February 2027. Registration is still open for papers, talks, and posters. Cassie looks forward to seeing people there! We hope that you’re looking forward to these as much as we are!

About CaSDaR

The Careers and Skills for Data driven Research (CaSDaR) initiative is a 4-year UKRI funded project which aims to address this gap by helping to define the role of Data Stewards within the UK research landscape and advocating for their recognition and representation across institutions.

We plan to complete these goals by connecting existing networks that support and elevate Data Stewardship in the UK, coordinate with international networks to ensure that activities for Data Stewards in the UK remains in line with global progress in this area, and to provide funding for case studies that demonstrate the crucial role that Data Stewards play in the continued development of the UK research ecosystem.

If you would like to hear more then please check our website, join the CaSDaR mailing list to keep up to date, follow us on LinkedIn, and email casdar@soton.ac.uk for more details.