CaSDaR's Data Steward Stories: Dr James Steele
2025-12-10 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | Online
Overview

In this Data Stewards Stories session, Dr James Steele will provide an overview of his career in supporting data stewardship from a holistic perspective, from navigating research dissemination to the appropriate use of statistics.

Audience
This webinar would be ideal for individuals who are working in roles involving data management planning, management of research or data processes within organisations, or researchers who have an interest into moving into the role of Data Steward.
Speaker Biography
James Steele has extensive experience of handling data in the academic, public and private sectors; he not only runs his own company providing consultancy services to support research best practice but also works full time as the Head of Research at MacroFactor.
James earned his PhD in Clinical Exercise Science before joining Solent University as a lecturer in Applied Sports Science. Alongside teaching, he held the role of Research and Innovation Fellow and was later promoted to Associate Professor in 2016. Throughout his academic career, James promoted research integrity, eventually becoming Solent’s Local Network Lead for the UK Reproducibility Network. James has actively supported researchers in adopting practices such as open data, pre-registration, and pre-print archiving, with a focus on supporting ECRs to develop these skills.
In 2024, James transitioned from academia to become Head of Research at Kieser Australia, a company focused on evidence-based strength training programs. This role introduced him to new types of datasets beyond those commonly used in academia, while he continued to advocate for reproducible research and transparency in scientific practice.
In this session, James will share insights into how his commitment to evidence-based decisions and research integrity has shaped his career trajectory.

CaSDaR's Funding Call Round 1: Q&A
2025-12-12 12:00 - 13:00
Part of the remit of CaSDaR is to provide an evidence base showing the value of embedding data stewardship into research workflows; we feel that a sustainable way of doing this is to fund data stewards in research organisations. CaSDaR has flexible funds allocated to enable development of projects, forming an evidence base to display the relevance of introducing data stewards in the UK across multiple disciplines and organisations.
We have developed two types of grants that our community can apply for:

£5k mini project funds – these are intended to be short-term projects to provide experience of Data Stewardship for individuals who would like to learn more about it as a career option; and
£70 large project funds – these are intended to be longer term projects for individuals who are established in their careers, and have a project that they are interested in developing to demonstrate the value of their work.

CaSDaR’s Funding Call was launched on the 5th November 2025 with an online webinar. The webinar can be viewed on CaSDaR’s YouTube channel and the slides are also available.
We want to ensure that our community feel supported to apply for the funding opportunities, so we’re inviting anyone who has queries to come to a Q&A session where we’ll answer your queries.
