Node: ELIXIR Netherlands
Authors: Mijke Jetten, data stewardship liaison and deputy training coordinator
Topics: Node context, Initial team
Start with two or three people who see the Node from different perspectives. They do not need to represent the whole Node, but they can help identify who is essential now and who can be involved later.
After appointing a data stewardship liaison, ELIXIR Netherlands needed to explore the responsibilities of the new role and how it could connect data stewardship activities across the distributed Node. No single person had a complete view of the work taking place across the Node, its organisations and its links with wider national and European initiatives.
We started with a small group consisting of the Head of Node, the data stewardship liaison and a data management expert from one university medical centre. The Head of Node brought the overarching Node perspective, while the institutional expert understood where data stewardship activities happen in practice. Bringing them together was already useful, as they had not previously worked together directly.
The first group was not intended to represent the whole Node. It helped us identify who should be involved next, including the Node Coordinator, Technical Coordinator, Training Coordinator, AI liaison, communications support and people involved in ELIXIR Platforms, Communities and Focus Groups. We also recognised that more institutional representatives may be needed to understand how the Node and its activities are perceived locally.