Data Stewardship Network

Carefully planned research data management is essential for reproducible research. Across Eawag, Empa, PSI and WSL, many research groups rely on dedicated members to ensure uniform data management, reproducible data analysis and standardized code development. These vital roles are increasingly known as data stewards, data managers or research software engineers.

To support these professionals and enable knowledge exchange between people involved in research data management, ETH Zürich, EPF Lausanne and the four research institutes in the ETH Domain launched individual networks with local events and cross-institutional community meetings twice-yearly. 

Featured Data Stewards at Eawag

Featured Data Stewards at Empa

Featured Data Stewards at WSL

Get Involved!

Interested in quarterly updates and connecting with other data stewards of the 4RIs? Send us a quick e-mail at data@lib4ri.ch! We are always happy to chat. 

Contact

Upcoming Events

  • Join the Swiss Research Software Engineering (RSE) Annual Conference 2026, a full-day event bringing together RSEs from academia, research, and industry.

    The conference includes keynotes, presentations, and a poster/demo session, focusing on:

    • RSE for Open Research Data (ORD) and Open Science
    • AI in Research Software Engineering
    • RSE Community (sharing experiences and building connections)

    Registration deadline: Aug. 17. 

    Date: Aug. 31, 2026

    Location: CAB Building, ETH Zurich Centrum

    For more information and registration link: Annual Swiss RSE day 2026

  • The ETH is happy to invite you to our upcoming DSN Autumn Community Meeting:

    Date: 22 September 2026

    Time: 2.00 pm – 5.00pm (welcome coffee 1.45pm)

    Location: hybrid, ETH Zurich Zentrum (room HG E 42, Rämistrasse 101), and Zoom: https://ethz.zoom.us/j/62173173582?pwd=JIdeT7PNyUCbnLM5jpx8bWVclXb0jb.1

    Welcome coffee: from 1:45 pm

    Registration required: To help us plan, please register for either online or on-site participation via the Zoom link https://ethz.zoom.us/j/62173173582?pwd=JIdeT7PNyUCbnLM5jpx8bWVclXb0jb.1

    Agenda: agenda and other details for this event will be made available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1w9wWGCknJ7tOBv_v4OXnZGDMlsVivLK8?usp=sharing

    Online participation: Presentations and following discussions will be offered for online participants (Zoom link above).

  • As part of its mandate for communication and stakeholder engagement, the SRDSN will organize a two-day international conference in fall this year.

    Date: Thursday and Friday, 19 and 20 November 2026
    Place: on the Gurten in Bern (How to get to the Gurten)

    No registration deadline yet. 

    For registration and more information: Research Data Conference (RDC) 2026 | SRDSN

  • The event's goal is to connect research IT specialists: experts who empower research by providing specific, advanced IT services.

    Examples include research software engineers, high-performance and scientific computing experts, data and information scientists, as well as research data management experts, data stewards and data analysis specialists in Swiss higher education institutions, Swiss research institutions and private companies that have a focus on serving public academic institutions (e.g. SWITCH).

    Date: Nov. 30, 2026

    Location: Auditorium (WHGA/001), PSI Viligen

    Registration:  Registration | EnhanceR Symposium 2026 (first-come, first-serve)

    For more information: EnhanceR Symposium 2026

  • The Fellowship of the Data is fueled by enthusiasm for Research Data Management (RDM) and networking. Founded by RDM trainers and data stewards, we want to offer an open space for everyone with aligned interests that fosters our community bonds and allows us to find peers from many different contexts and scientific disciplines. We believe in the power of collaboration and knowledge sharing. By exchanging resources, learning from each other's experiences, and forging synergistic teams, we can learn how to better support researchers and stakeholders alike.

    Registration deadline: Aug. 31

    Dates: Sept. 21-22, 2026

    Location: University of Vienna

    For more information and to register: Fellowship of the Data Meeting 2026

This network initiative has been possible through project funding by the ETH Board’s Open Research Data (ORD) program. The project Data Stewardship Network aims to:

  • Facilitate knowledge exchange and best-practice workshops for data-focused roles.
  • Provide coordinated, pragmatic support for managing research data across the ETH Domain.
  • Advise on improvements for data policies within the ETH Domain.
  • Highlight vital contributions and skillsets of data stewards and research software engineers within the research community.

 

Past meetings

12 March 2026 EPFL Research Data Support Network Gathering at EPFL (hybrid) 

10 March 2026 Careers in Data Stewardship (virtual) featuring Andreas Amsler (Meteoswiss), Lea Stauber (BLW), and Natalia Chicherova (NEXUS Personalized Health Technologies) 

04 November 2025 ETH Domain Data Stewardship Fall Community Event at Eawag (hybrid)

04 September 2025 EnhanceR Symposium: Finding Synergies between RSEs and Data Stewards

17 June 2025 Research Software Engineering and Data Stewardship Career Talk at Eawag featuring Lars Schöbitz, Liliana Vargas Meleza, Vincent Emonet, Stefanie Eyring 

03 April 2025 ETH Domain Data Stewardship Spring Community Event at ETH Zurich (hybrid)

 

For additional ETH Domain events and trainings, please check out the SRDSN events page and the SRDSN trainings page. 

Resources