Radboudumc is establishing a regional node for Health-RI. We are now looking for an enthusiastic data steward. As a data steward, you will be part of a team that makes sure that health data from Radboudumc and its regional partners becomes available for research and improvements in health and health care. Training of researchers and clinicians in making data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) is an important aspect of the job. Will you join our team to increase the FAIRness of data in several use cases of different projects?

Due to (digital) innovations, the quantity but also the variety, of data in scientific research is increasing rapidly. This leads to rich data sets from which many new insights can be obtained. However, these datasets are mostly not annotated with metadata nor interoperable among themselves. To fix that, the research community has adopted the FAIR principles, worldwide. They say that data should be Findable, Accessible Interoperable, and ultimately Reusable. We believe that the FAIR data principles should be implemented to datasets with the potential to be linked to others and to be federated and analysed.

We have taken important first steps in the development of interoperable rare disease patient registries, based on the FAIR principles, facilitating joint analysis of patient data from multiple registries. We are now looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious data steward, who will support clinicians and researchers to increase the FAIRness of patient data, such as clinician and patient-reported outcomes and health questionnaire data in other use cases. This will unlock the data for use in clinical patient management, research and improvement in quality of care.

As a data steward you will develop data models and tools to capture FAIR data at the source (i.e. where the data are generated or analysed) and facilitate the publication of research data in FAIR Data Points and registries. A specific focus will be on the joint analysis of data from clinical registries and patient-reported outcomes. You will work in the context of Health RI and be in close contact with the data stewards appointed on other projects (X-omics, EJP RD)and in other regional nodes with highly similar goals.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Developing shared work processes and standards in FAIR data.
• Building expertise among data professionals.
• Make stakeholders at national, regional, domain and local levels aware of the motivations for and the importance of FAIR data.
• Engaging with clinicians and researchers, and support and training them in FAIR data management and the data FAIRification process.
• Co-develop software, tooling, services, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and policies around the FAIR capture and publication of data and metadata.
• Participation in national and international data stewardship discussion groups and coordination and competence building initiatives, such as the rare disease linked data and ontology task force and the data steward interest group run by the Dutch Techcentre for the Life Sciences.
• Contribute to FAIR tooling and infrastructure for specific projects, such as PRISMA (personalized risk-based mammascreening research), COCON (data on hospitalized COVID-19 patients) and CMyLife (platform for patients with hematological disorders).

As a data steward, you are the expert in the field of data management and interoperability for scientific research and you act as a point of contact for several use cases within the Radboudumc and Health RI. The ideal candidate for this position has experience with the FAIR principles in order to meet the requirements and standards set from the scientific domain as well as by the own organization.

Furthermore you have:

• MSc or PhD in a relevant discipline (public health, medical informatics, data science, biology, bioinformatics, computer science, artificial intelligence).
• You endorse the FAIR principles and Open Science.
• Experience with (meta)data modelling and knowledge of formal data representations and frameworks (e.g. FHIR, ODHISI, ODL, SIO, DCAT).
• Ontology, Thesaurus, Semantic web / linked data skills preferred (e.g. OWL, RDF, ShEx, RML).
• Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams.
• Excellent writing and verbal communication in English (Dutch is a plus).
• Ambition to participate/present in (inter)national conferences/congresses, academic writing skills.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year with a possible extension.

As a data steward we offer you diverse and multicultural work environment very open to international colleagues with flexible / hybrid work possibilities. But there is more:

• Opportunities to career development and specialisation / learning.
• Working in a team which is at the forefront of FAIR data infrastructure development and access to great network of experts in FAIR principles.
• Empowerment and independence at your own responsibilities.
• Possibility to research and develop / learn at the job (to tackle low experienced people).

Working at Radboud university medical center means that you are ahead of the curve and working together on the healthcare of the future. And there is more. Our secondary terms of employment are impressive. These are fully tailored to you thanks to our Employment Conditions Selection Model. At Radboud university medical center, you will be given trust, and you will take the responsibility to handle everything together.

• A gross monthly salary between € 3.188 and € 4.370 (scale 9) based on full-time employment.
• An annual vacation allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.
• If you work irregular hours, you will receive an allowance.
• As a full-time employee (36 hours per week), you are entitled to approximately 168 vacation hours (over 23 days) per year.
• Radboud university medical center pays 70% of the pension premium. You pay the rest of the premium with your gross salary.
• You get a discount on health insurance as well: you can take advantage of two group health insurance plans. UMC Zorgverzekering and CZ collectief.
• We provide annual courses, both professional and personal.

In addition to our terms of employment, we also offer employees various other attractive facilities, such as childcare and sports facilities. Want to learn more? Take a look at the CAO UMC.

Radboudumc

Health-RI was founded to realize a health data infrastructure in the Netherlands. The availability of health data is important to enable researchers, healthcare professionals and also companies to perform better data-driven research and healthcare innovation, thereby contributing to improving the health of all Dutch people. Health-RI is a non-profit foundation and works closely with many parties, such as the government, and hospitals, but also with companies and research organizations at home and abroad. Health-RI recently received a substantial subsidy from the National Growth Fund to realize these ambitions in the coming years.

The Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics (CMBI) develops bioinformatics approaches that contribute to the understanding of disease mechanisms, personalized therapies and interventions, and a learning health care system. The CMBI is committed to the reusability of its data, tools, and services, and puts the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interpretable, Reusable) data principles into action.

The Radboud Technology Center for Data Stewardship (RTC-DS) develops and supports various ICT solutions for research data management. Its mission is to supply researchers with data management tools to both facilitate groundbreaking research and simplify compliance with laws, regulations and standards (like FAIR). At the heart of their suite of tools is the internationally acclaimed Digital Research Environment (DRE), a comprehensive and flexible analysis environment.

Read more about our research group Computational approaches to advance personalized medicine.

Radboudumc
Radboud university medical center is a university medical center for patient care, scientific research, and education in Nijmegen. Radboud university medical center strives to be at the forefront of shaping the healthcare of the future. We do this in a person-centered and innovative way, and in close collaboration with our network. We want to have a significant impact on healthcare. We want to improve with each passing day, continuously working towards better healthcare, research, and education. And gaining a better understanding of how diseases arise and how we can prevent, treat, and cure them, day in and day out. This way, every patient always receives the best healthcare, now and in the future. Because that is why we do what we do.

Read more about our strategy and what working at Radboud university medical center means. Our colleagues would be happy to tell you about it. #weareradboudumc