The topic of the LERU Doctoral Summer School 2016 is "Data Stewardship for Scientific Discovery and Innovation". The School is organized by the Leiden University, Netherlands, and took place from 10 - 15 July 2016. More information can be found here.

“The LERU Summer School 2016 held in Leiden was a wonderful opportunity that brought together PhD researchers from all over Europe, and a few from Japan, to discuss about Data Stewardship. We attended several informative courses regarding open access and the handling of research data as scientists. We really became empowered as a tight-knit group of students that we are the future of open science in research across all fields! However, the greatest experience of this Summer School lies in the inspiring contact with other interdisciplinary researchers and the personal contact made with all of the professors involved.”

This year's LERU summer school in Leiden brought together motivated PhD students and researchers to discuss data stewardship and how we can bring the principles of open science and data sharing to our own fields.  It was a fascinating opportunity to learn about state of the art tools and innovations in scientific research from some of the leading researchers in the field.  We learned a great deal about new open science platforms to enhance collaborations, about the expanding world of nanopublications, and how to create a data stewardship plan for our own studies.  Perhaps for me, however, the most rewarding part was learning from my fellow students and the passionate organizers, whose diverse fields of research and experience helped me to better understand the interdisciplinary possibilities of data sharing and innovation.  Since the summer school, we have remained in touch both about developments in the world of open science and to collaborate on a working document summarizing our viewpoint as young scientists on the future of open science.  I feel confident that I will continue to work with and learn from this group in the future, and am grateful to the Graduate Campus for making my stay in Leiden possible.

In 2015, three UZH researchers successfully applied for participation in the LERU Summer School in Oxford via the Graduate Campus. You can read their reports in our news article.