The focus of the SRDSN Data Stewardship Coordinator node this year is on sustainability. To discuss it, Dr. Thomas Leibundgut and Dr. Katja Fiechter, scientific policy officers at swissuniversities, were invited to engage in a dialogue on how data stewardship will evolve in the context of limited funding and shifting priorities. 

Although the Open Science Programmes are now coming to an end, investments of around 45 million Swiss francs in federal funding, together with investments by Higher Education Institutions (HEI) of at least the same amount, have enabled the development of infrastructures, such as Open Science Competence Centres in over 30 Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), and increased HEI collaboration through 149 co-financed Open Research Data (ORD) projects. This includes the SRDSN. 

The strategic objectives of swissuniversities are shifting over the next few years. However, Open Research Data and data stewardship remain relevant, particularly to the topics of digital transformation, research infrastructures, and technological sovereignty. The ability to achieve these new strategies depends on national funding, which remains an open question at least until the end of 2028. 

While some coordinators expressed their frustration on the funding situation, others brought in glimmers of hope. They described local institutional priority setting of open science, such as development of an open access policy and dedicated positions. Other members of the node described how they still maintain collaborations established through previous projects, but with shifted focuses, or pointed to alternative funding methods. These alternatives include national research programmes (NFP), and EU programmes, which remains heavily invested in open science and ORD. 

The SRDSN Spring Data Stewardship Coordinator Node meeting hence ended with an uplifting message: Data stewardship remains relevant especially in light of emerging themes such as knowledge security.