Data Curation Network launched

Eight US university libraries are collaborating with the help of a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.


The Data Curation Network has been set up to help institutions support researchers who want to make their research data openly available and easily discoverable.

Each institution already has its own expert data curators, but no institution will have curatorial expertise in every discipline. The Network will connect a wide network of expert data curators to supplement local expertise.

The vision for the Data Curation Network project

  • By using standards-driven data curation techniques the Network will become a valued and trusted entity with practical and transparent workflows and infrastructure
  • The Network will expand into a sustainable entity that grows beyond the initial partner institutions
  • The datasets curated by the Network will be used to advance research and education in ways that are measurably of greater reuse value than non-curated data
  • By sharing tools, providing a pipeline for training data curators, and promoting data curation practices across the profession, the Network will build an innovative community that enriches capacities for data curation writ large.

Who’s involved

The initial partners of the Network are: The University of Minnesota Libraries (leading the three-year implementation phase), the U-M Library, Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University, Duke University Libraries, University Library at University of Illinois at Urbana­-Champaign, Cornell University Library, Penn State University Libraries, and the Dryad Digital Repository.

You can read more about the Data Curation Network and access other resources on the website: https://sites.google.com/site/datacurationnetwork/