DOI: 10.12688/openreseurope.22183.2 ISSN: 2732-5121

Data stewardship in Italy: Findings from the first national survey

Giulia Caldoni, Vittorio Iacovella, Emma Lazzeri, Liise Lehtsalu, Francesca Marchegiani, Mauro Paschetta, Valentina Pasquale, Giulia Pedonese, Andrea Tarallo
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Research data management (RDM) plays a key role in ensuring research reproducibility and transparency by supporting data sharing in line with Open Science principles. Across the international landscape, professional figures supporting data management practices, such as data stewards (DSs), are emerging through a variety of career paths. The Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure (ICDI), together with the Horizon Europe Skills4EOSC project, conducted a national survey between April and December 2023 to map the presence, roles, and activities of data stewardship services across universities and research-performing organisations. The aim was to provide an initial overview of the Italian landscape, which is known to be fragmented and lacking of clear professional recognition for research support professionals. The survey, administered in Italian through the EUSurvey platform, consisted of 13 closed-ended questions addressing the professional background of DSs, their role and functions, and the structure of RDM support services. Data cleaning was performed on the 77 valid entries collected (out of 88 responses) before conducting the descriptive analyses. Results indicate that most institutions employ staff with DS functions, although these professionals are seldom formally recognised as DSs. The variety of job titles highlighted by the survey reflects the absence of a standardised professional profile. Among the RDM support tasks performed by DSs, the most common include FAIR data management support, data management plan writing, researcher training, and policy consultancy. These findings provided a basis for the establishment of the Italian Data Steward Community, aiming to overcome the fragmentation through peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and support, and to advance the definition of a professionalisation pathway for DSs in Italy. The findings of this survey can serve as a case study to help DSs, research data professionals, and policymakers in other countries to map and understand their local landscape.

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