Martijn van Rooijen knows the importance of data from his years of experience as data manager and scientific researcher within infectious diseases. In his thesis, he used data from the Amsterdam STI clinic to demonstrate the effect of certain clinical and management choices. He also played a coordinating role in the ICT change process that was needed to make the STI outpatient clinic work more efficiently.
He is now working at the RIVM as a data steward, where his goal is to handle data as efficiently as possible. The entire data lifecycle applies here: from the moment the data are collected to the moment they are archived or destroyed. As a knowledge institute, the RIVM has a wealth of data that could be used much more efficiently.
In order to support academic staff as much as possible, he provides tooling – data management plans, (meta)data catalogue – and guidelines. This is done in cooperation with important disciplines such as privacy, legal and the archive. In addition to central work, Martijn also provides direct support to researchers who want to make their data more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).