In alignment with TU Wien’s fuTUre fit strategy and Open Science principles, the new Data Stewardship Pilot project aims to establish sustainable practices for managing, curating, and sharing research data and code. Designated Faculty Data Stewards will play a central role in ensuring data quality, reproducibility, and openness across research projects, driving a cultural change in how data is handled and shared within the university.
The initiative by the Center for RDM is being piloted in collaboration with the Faculty of Mathematics and Geoinformation and the Faculty of Architecture and Planning. It is featured under the Supplementary Agreements to Performance Agreements (German: LV-Zusatzvereinbarungen) and spans from October 2025 to the end of December 2027.
A promising start
The kick-off meeting, held on the 29th of October 2025 in the “Luftpavillon”, brought together researchers and data experts from diverse backgrounds, including remote sensing and geoinformation systems, as well as urban planning, scientific and design architecture, and building science. Together, they engaged in interactive exercises designed to gain a deeper understanding of the data landscape within the two TU Wien faculties. The exercises revealed the impressive diversity of data across disciplines – from spatial and geospatial data to architectural models, simulations, and urban planning data – laying the groundwork for identifying shared challenges and opportunities for collaboration in future Data Stewardship activities.
Lastly, the participants discussed the evolving profile of Data Stewards: professionals who combine technical expertise, scientific understanding, and a commitment to open, high-quality data. As Tomasz Miksa, representing the Center for RDM, emphasised during the meeting, “the key outcome of good research data management is trusted, reusable datasets. Our products are not only papers – they are the datasets themselves. A proper process for data stewardship is integral to help make research impactful”.
What’s next?
In the next half year, we will organise a sequence of training and workshops structured into six modules, each with its own theme:
- Introduction to research data management (RDM)
- RDM infrastructures
- FAIR (meta)data principles
- Legal and ethical frameworks
- Data quality
- Intro to AI/ML
The first workshop is already planned for December 5th, where participants will get started with the details of RDM practices and the concrete steps toward implementing stewardship within their faculties.
A shared vision
The Data Stewardship Pilot demonstrates TU Wien’s commitment to sustainable, high-impact, and transparent research. Projects like this foster collaboration between faculties, empower researchers to manage and share their data responsibly, and continue to strengthen TU Wien’s role as a leader in Open Science and digital research innovation.
Contact
TU Wien
Center for Research Data Management
research.data@tuwien.ac.at