Extending the CODATA-RDA schools to embrace Data Stewardship

Since 2016, the CODATA-RDA Schools for Research Data Science IG, has run a series of enormously successful schools providing a foundation in Data Science skills for Early Career Researchers focused on researchers from Low-Middle Income Countries. By September 2019 eight schools will have been run on three continents to over 400 students from over 40 countries. The curriculum has been submitted to the RDA as an official output. The schools are in high demand with typically an order of magnitude more applicants than available seats. This is even more remarkable given that effort from instructors and chairs is largely provided on a voluntary basis. 

The schools with the present curriculum will continue to be run on an expanding basis. In the calendar year of 2019 schools will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Trieste, Italy, and San José, Costa Rica. In collaboration with FAIRsFAIR the schools will introduce an optional parallel strand for Data Stewards. At the time of the meeting a pilot will have been run on this at the school in Trieste. From 2020 a series of schools will be run where

• There are two possible parallel strands, one for ECR’s and one for Data Stewards (if requested by the host organization),

• The additional new curriculum allows for extensive cross-talk in terms of shared exercises between these strands so both communities understand the importance of the other and that they should be interacting.

On this latter point we are specifically interested in getting feedback from the community on the proposed curriculum.