Data Champions Network

A community of practice for researchers and professional staff with a passion for research data.

The network

The Data Champions network is a community of advocates for enhancing research data management capabilities. Participants of the network promote FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) data principles. Data Champions are connected to central support and infrastructure for research data management, and are supported in building their own local communities of practice.

Network activities

The activities and direction of the network are participant-driven. The group meets about three times a year to share ideas, challenges and discuss all matters related to the management, curation and preservation of research data.

Members of the University can read about previous network meetups on the Data Champions wiki pages.

Current participants

The network currently has about 40 members from Faculties across the University. Participants are predominantly academic researchers, but the network also includes professional staff such as research data managers.

The network is facilitated by Gene Melzack (Data Curator) from the Digital Stewardship (Research) team and Eleanor Colla (Research Consultant) from the Scholarly Communications team in the University Library.

Join the network

Eligibility

To become a Data Champion and join the network, you must be:

  • A researcher or professional staff member at the University of Melbourne involved in conducting or supporting data-driven research
  • Available to participate in Data Champions network activities and meetup events

Responsibilities

Members of the Data Champions network are expected to act as advocates for data stewardship. In addition, participants may also choose to get involved in further activities, such as creating awareness about initiatives in best practice data management and participating in the creation of joint data curation resources.

Benefits

Current participants have said that they appreciate the opportunity to connect with researchers from other disciplines, hear what they’re doing and share common challenges. Having access to professional data managers’ expertise is also a benefit, as well as hearing about what resources are available from the University and from colleagues.

Join

To register an expression of interest in joining the Data Champions network, please fill out this form and Gene or Eleanor will get back to you.