Maaike, tell us a bit about yourself…
My scientific background is in the social sciences. However, from the start of my career, I have been interested in supporting others in carrying out their work in a structured and effective way. That is why the Training Team is such a good fit for me, as I get to support data stewards and other professionals in addressing practical questions and challenges in their work.
My specific area of focus is trustworthiness, in particular CoreTrustSeal certification, where I support repositories in mapping, evaluating, improving and transparently presenting their practices and policies.
I also value the more practice-oriented training sessions with data stewards, where we look at the questions they receive most often from researchers. I look at how newly developed tools and outputs can support data stewards and researchers in their work, and how to make their relationship with repository managers more explicit and mutually beneficial.
What unique training format have you enjoyed implementing?
At the 2025 National Open Science Festival, I worked together with my colleague Ricarda Braukmann on the topic of qualitative data management and reuse. We used a new format (to me) adapted from Joana Macy’s Seventh Generation method, which is designed to encourage participants to listen carefully and reflect on their concerns, expectations and perspectives on the future.
It is not a solution-oriented approach, but it allows people to take time to reflect on their experiences and perspectives, which is often overlooked in a work context but, in my view, equally important — that may be my psychology background creeping to the forefront. It was very valuable to see how this worked in practice.
What topic could you give a 20-minute presentation on without any preparation?
This is where my educational background in psychology and cognitive neuroscience still comes into play, alongside my personal hobby, which is, somewhat ironically, also ‘dans’. The positive effects of dancing on the human brain and mental health is a topic I can talk about extensively. I am a keen follower of Professor Erik Scherder’s work in this area.
What will you be doing for this month’s DANS Training Team theme of ‘Trustworthiness’?
This month, on 30 April, we are holding an online workshop that focuses on how clear, informative descriptions foster trust in the relevance and quality of your data and thereby encourage their reuse. By the time you are reading this, the workshop may already have taken place. However, do not fear, DANS colleagues will also explore the topic of describing deposits in an interactive session at the upcoming DANS Open Day on 11 June 2026, and registration is currently open. So, do sign up for a free ticket and meet us there!
About the DANS Training Team
DANS is the national centre of expertise for research data, and training and workshops are a core part of this work. DANS has a multidisciplinary Training Team that provides training and workshops for researchers, institutions and data professionals on making research data sustainably findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. The team is led by Training Coordinator Dr Deborah Thorpe.
The Training Team has identified a series of thematic areas to focus on in each month of 2026. These are highlighted on the DANS website, in the DataLink newsletter, and on social media. To find out more about DANS Training, you can visit the relevant page on the website or contact the team by email.
