One for FAIR, FAIR for All: Embedded Data Stewards as the Musketeers of Research Data Management

The perfect world for which a data steward strives is one in which high-quality data and metadata can be shared easily, freely, and openly within the scientific community, with active participation at all stages by scientists. To follow the Three Musketeers’ vision we combine complementary skills / abilities to achieve one goal in addition to policy and infrastructure changes. Knowledge and transfer hubs are the way to ideally use the available resources and reach this goal. Embedded data stewards are the solution. They combine an understanding of general data management practices, scientific methods and publishing goals of their specific community, while also functioning as a point of contact for the institutional research data management (RDM) services. This allows them to bridge the gap between institute-wide RDM and the scientists they work closely with on a regular basis. Additionally,it helps to increase data management awareness and improves the quality, documentation, publication, and long-term reusability of research data. In 2025, a team of five eDS was established at ZALF, to foster a flexible research-oriented yet structured approach in RDM. They empower the RDM within their teams by supporting their colleagues which leads to an improvement in quality and reusability of research data.