Building Responsible and Sustainable Open Data Literacy Skills for Early Career Researchers: A Decade of the SoRDS Programme

In today’s data-centric research environment, effective data literacy is essential for ensuring data usability, integrity, and reproducibility. The Schools of Research Data Science (SoRDS), launched in 2016 in partnership with the Committee on Data (CODATA) and the Research Data Alliance (RDA), marks a decade of impactful training and capacity-building for early-career researchers (ECRs) from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with its tenth anniversary reached in August 2025. This paper examines its distinctive, holistic approach to equipping researchers with core competencies in data science, open science, and research data management (RDM). Unlike traditional programmes focused solely on technical skills, SoRDS integrates principles of data ethics, reproducibility, data stewardship, and interdisciplinary collaboration into its curriculum.

Central to its mission is the ‘Train-the-Trainer’ model, which empowers participants to become instructors and regional leaders, creating a sustainable and scalable community of practice. SoRDS not only provides technical training but also fosters a culture of openness and inclusivity, ensuring that the benefits of the data revolution reach underserved research communities. Over the past decade, the schools have been hosted in diverse regions, adapting content to local contexts and creating a strong global network of alumni, mentors, and institutions.

Crucially, SoRDS advances an ‘RDM in context’ approach, prioritizing what is practical, relevant, and achievable in low-resource settings. SoRDS tailors its training to the realities of LMICs, making its content more applicable, sustainable, and impactful for these communities. Drawing on a decade of documentation, this paper provides a retrospective synthesis of SoRDS’ development, global expansion, alumni impact, and lessons learned, situating these within the broader training landscape. In particular, it draws comparisons with other training activities, noting the specific niche SoRDS has in this landscape. Finally, it outlines priorities for the programme’s next stage.

The primary focus of this paper is to provide a reflective, evidence-based account of SoRDS: its historical development, its unique pedagogical model, its global expansion, and the lessons learned over a decade of implementation in low- and middle-income research environments.