Fellowship Programme
About the Fellowship Programme
The modern research landscape demands that research-performing organisation foster and sustain professional profiles dedicated to Open Science, FAIR data principles, and data management practices. The Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme aims to address this need by sponsoring short secondments for data professionals in Open Science. This initiative was tailored for data stewards and individuals engaged in data support related to Open Science, collectively referred to as "Fellows" hereinafter.
The programme sought to stimulate life-long learning through knowledge and experience exchange between data professionals across different institutions, fostering collaboration and facilitating participation in relevant professional networks.
Aims of the Fellowship
The Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme had four primary objectives:
- Support Life-Long Learning: Encourage data professionals in Open Science to acquire skills relevant to Open and FAIR data practices and research data management, fostering continuous professional growth.
- Institutional Capacity Building: Empower Fellows to build or consolidate Open and FAIR data practices within their home institutions, driving positive organisational change.
- Knowledge Exchange: Enable Fellows to explore, establish, and share services, tools, and infrastructures related to Open and FAIR data.
- Strengthen Collaboration: Facilitate collaboration among institutions by encouraging participation in relevant professional networks, creating a vibrant community of data professionals.
Presenting our Fellows
The Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme has now concluded, providing a unique and valuable opportunity for data professionals in Open Science. This initiative supported individuals passionate about Open Science, FAIR data, and research data management in enhancing their skills, fostering collaboration, and engaging in meaningful knowledge exchange across institutions.
A Transformative Journey for Data Professionals
Launched to address the growing need for expertise in Open Science, the Programme featured two calls for applications: the first with a deadline of 31 October 2023 and the second on 17 March 2024. In total, 17 applications were received, and nine fellows were awarded grants after rigorous evaluation.
The Fellows’ achievements
As of August 2024, five fellows had completed their placements, with the remaining four completing their fellowships by December 2024. The fellowships spanned diverse activities, including project-based collaboration, internships, and exploration of Open and FAIR data practices. Each fellowship aimed to advance institutional capacity, promote lifelong learning, and strengthen professional networks. Detailed evaluation questionnaires were designed for fellows and host institutions to measure the programme's impact. These evaluations assessed the experience, skills gained, and alignment with the Minimum Viable Skillset for Data Stewards developed within the project.
Meet the Fellows
We are pleased to introduce the fellows selected for the Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme, who have actively engaged in advancing Open Science and FAIR data practices through their projects and collaborations:
Call 1 - October 2023
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Michal Tirana
Michal Tirana
- Name:
- Michal Tirana
- Home institution:
- J Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry (Czechia)
- Host institution:
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 13 May - 27 July 2024
- Short biography:
- I am a theoretical atomic and molecular physicist dealing with the development of computational methods and related computer programs at Czech Academy of Sciences. My passion in the high-performance computing naturally led me to the topics of storing, identifying and sharing large volumes of the scientific data. As a member of the Open Science team at my research institute, I became interested in the advanced hardware and software tools necessary for the research data management, as I believe that they are a necessary integral component of the scientific progress. Therefore, I recently joint the software development in this field. As the technical tools and workflows used in the research data management must respect the principles of FAIR data and other best practices, I also decided to join the Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme with the hope to gain a complex insight into the research data management. This will provide me with an opportunity to implement them in the developed software tools and to use them in the scientific community.
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Roxana Cerda Cosme
Roxana Cerda Cosme
- Name:
- Roxana Cerda Cosme
- Home institution:
- University Charles III of Madrid (UC3M)
- Host institution:
- 4TU.ResearchData (Netherlands)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 01 March - 31 May 2024
- Short biography:
- PhD student in Library Science and Associate Professor in the Library and Information Science Department at the Carlos III University of Madrid. Member of the research group OpenScienceLab (Meta-research for Open Science). Lines of research: Open Science, Research Data, Metadata, FAIR Data, Sharing and Reproducibility Data.
orcid.org
opensciencelab.uc3m.es
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Ann Christin Andres
Ann Christin Andres
- Name:
- Ann-Christin Andres
- Home institution:
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany)
- Host institution:
- Technical University of Denmark
- Duration of fellowship:
- 15 May 2024 - 12 July 2024
- Short biography:
- Ann-Christin Andres is a chemist with over 2 years of experience in research data management (RDM) with a focus on RDM training. In her current position as a research associate for RDM at the university of Mainz, she enjoys using her skills to contribute to the exciting work of NFDI4Chem to create a future for data in chemical research. NFDI4Chem is the chemistry consortium of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), a German association in which valuable data from science and research are systematically accessed, networked and made usable in a sustainable and qualitative manner. Ann-Christin’s work covers a wide range of RDM consulting services and she is passionate about FAIR and Open Science.
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Clara Parente Boavida
Clara Parente Boavida
- Name:
- Clara Parente Boavida
- Home institution:
- ISCTE (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa)
- Host institution:
- University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 11 March 2024 - 05 April 2024
- Short biography:
- Clara Parente Boavida currently works at the Research Support Office of Iscte as a Data Steward and Open Science Advisor, also supporting post-award activities and bibliometric indicator studies. She has been an advocate of Open Access since the beginning of her career. At the University of Minho, she managed the MedOAnet and PASTEUR4OA projects. She has also worked as an Open Access Advisor at the University of Nottingham, UK, as part of the OpenAIRE and NECOBELAC project teams. Clara has also worked as a repository manager at the NOVA University of Lisbon. In Creative Commons Portugal, she helped individuals with legal issues. She has a degree in teaching natural sciences, a master's in educational sciences and a postgraduate in project management.
Call 2 - March 2024
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Fernando Aguilar Gomez
Fernando Aguilar Gomez
- Name:
- Fernando Aguilar Gomez
- Home institution:
- Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas)
- Host institution:
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 9 September - 8 November 2024
- Short biography:
- Dr. Fernando Aguilar Gómez, a Tenured Scientist at IFCA (CSIC-UC), specializes in computing, data science, and data management, participating in prominent national and international projects like EU FP7, H2020, and HORIZON EUROPE. Since earning his PhD in Science and Technology from the University of Cantabria in 2017, Fernando has concentrated on the interplay between data science and advanced computing technologies. His research experience encompasses managing distributed computing systems and integrating scientific databases, emphasizing the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles in Open Science. Fernando has played different roles in Cloud Computing-related projects, particularly those related to biodiversity and ecosystems with LifeWatch ERIC, and has contributed to international collaborations such as COOPEUS. He has coordinated computational services for hydrodynamic and water quality models, leveraging data science and AI methodologies. He is very active in open science forums, including Science Europe and the Research Data Alliance, and has led various Work Packages and Tasks in international projects. One of Fernando's significant contributions is the design and development of FAIR EVA, a tool for assessing FAIR data principles. He is actively involved in European projects like AI4EOSC and EOSC-SIESTA, and various EOSC working groups. In academia, he contributes to Master's programs in Data Science and Particle and Cosmos Physics at UC-UIMP, focusing on the data lifecycle. His leadership extends to remote sensing projects utilizing AI for satellite data analysis as well as teaching at the International University Menéndez Pelayo.
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Jacob Rusakov
Jacob Rusakov
- Name:
- Jakub Rusakow
- Home institution:
- Medical University of Gdansk
- Host institution:
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italy)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 2 September - 11 October 2024
- Short biography:
- PhD in Literature, Head of the Scientific Information and Promotion, Division and Open Science Team Leader at the Medical University of Gdansk Main Library. He also coordinates the university’s Excellence of Scientific Publication Unit. Member of Council of European Association for Health Information and Libraries, Research Data Alliance, the Working Group for Research Data Management on Medical Universities in Poland. He gained experience in creating Data Management Plans during numerous consultations with medical researchers. Conducted classes for students and doctoral students on Open Science and research data management as well as workshops and trainings for the researchers and grantees of National Science Center (also on nationwide scale). Involved in the development of projects related to Open Science, such as Polish Platform of Medical Research. Author of scientific publications on research data management and international conferences speaker. Polish Data Steward School 2021 alumnus.
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Marek Suchanek
Marek Suchanek
- Name:
- Marek Suchanek
- Home institution:
- Czech Technical University (Czechia)
- Host institution:
- Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 29 August - 02 November 2024
- Short biography:
- Marek Suchánek is known in the RDM community within Europe for his devotion to the Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW), a data management planning platform. Last year, he earned a double-degree PhD from the Faculty of Information Technology at CTU in Prague and the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Antwerp. His passion for software and ontology engineering drives his involvement in cutting-edge projects related to FAIR data, data stewardship, and Open Science. Marek is dedicated to designing and developing novel solutions and improving existing tools that are widely utilized. In addition to DSW, he has contributed to several other significant open-source projects, including FAIR Data Point, Smart City Compass, FAIR Data Station, and RDMkit. At CTU in Prague, he leads the Normalized Systems Laboratory (NSLab), which focuses on applied metamodeling, model transformations, and sustainable software solutions.
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Sac Medina
Sac Medina
- Name:
- Sac Medina
- Home institution:
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) - German Aerospace Center (Germany)
- Host institution:
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 10 June - 12 July 2024
- Short biography:
- Dr. Sac Nicté Medina is an RDM project manager at the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) - German Aerospace Center. She has a bachelor in Physics from UAEM (University in Mexico) and a PhD in Astrophysics from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn in Germany, having a solid experience in good data management practices like data storage, publishing, documentation, and archiving. The project she is in charge of is inst.dlr, a semantic instrument database which intended to provide information of instruments/devices and to support researchers in the search and selection of these.
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Nicky Daniels
Nicky Daniels
- Name:
- Nicky Daniels
- Home institution:
- Hasselt University (Belgium)
- Host institution:
- 4TU.ResearchData (Netherlands)
- Duration of fellowship:
- 17 June - 1 August, 14 October - 16 December 2024
- Short biography:
- Nicky Daniels is a discipline-specific data steward for Natural & Engineering Sciences at Hasselt University. In the last two years, she has acquired valuable experience in guiding researchers toward best practices in data management and open sciences as well as identifying the challenges researchers experience when it comes to documenting and sharing data and research software. Her professional background as a data steward is complemented by over a decade of experience in academic research at KU Leuven in the fields of biological psychology and biomedical research. Her research and research support experience is what she will bring to the table during her Skills4EOSC fellowship at 4TU.ResearchData, both to gain insights into the daily operations of the data repository and to see how the needs of researchers and support staff can be addressed in guidance and training materials for the 4TU.ResearchData user community.
This fellowship offers an incredible opportunity to collaborate with experts, deepen my understanding of data sharing in practice, and build a professional network that will benefit my future work at my home institution, Hasselt University.
Host Institutions
Leading institutions in Open Science and FAIR data practices supported the programme:
- Polytechnic University of Turin (POLITO)
- Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)
- University of Trento (UNITN)
- Euro‑Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)
- 4TU.ResearchData
- TU Delft
- Aarhus University (AU)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- KU Leuven (KUL)
- Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers)
- University of Edinburgh (UE)
- Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Looking Forward
The Skills4EOSC Fellowship Programme has been a remarkable journey of collaboration, skill-building, and knowledge exchange. We thank all participants, host institutions, and evaluators for their contributions to making this initiative a success.
For further details, contact us at
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