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The Case for Strategic Data Stewardship: Re-imagining Data Governance to Make Responsible Data Re-use Possible

Author: Stefaan Verhulst Date: January 10, 2026 Source: arXiv:2601.06687

Abstract

As societal challenges grow more complex, access to data for public interest use is paradoxically becoming more constrained. This emerging "data winter" is not simply a matter of scarcity, but of shrinking legitimate and trusted pathways for responsible data reuse. Concerns over misuse, regulatory uncertainty, and the competitive race to train AI systems have concentrated data access among a few actors while raising costs and inhibiting collaboration.

Prevailing data governance models, focused on compliance, risk management, and internal control, are necessary but insufficient. They often result in data that is technically available yet practically inaccessible, legally shareable yet institutionally unusable, or socially illegitimate to deploy.

Key Argument

The paper proposes strategic data stewardship as a complementary institutional function designed to systematically, sustainably, and responsibly activate data for public value.

The Data Winter Problem

  • Not a shortage of data itself, but restricted pathways for legitimate reuse
  • Conventional governance approaches focusing on compliance, risk management, and internal control are insufficient
  • Data often left technically available yet practically inaccessible

Traditional vs Strategic Data Stewardship

Unlike traditional stewardship, which tends to be inward-looking, strategic data stewardship focuses on:

  • Enabling cross-sector reuse
  • Reducing missed opportunities
  • Building durable, ecosystem-level collaboration
  • Translating governance principles into actionable practices

Framework Components

The paper outlines:

  1. Core Principles — foundational values guiding data stewardship
  2. Operational Functions — practical activities stewards perform
  3. Competencies — skills required for effective stewardship
  4. Data Stewardship Canvas — practical implementation tool for adoption across contexts

Application Contexts

The framework supports adoption across:

  • Data collaboratives
  • Data spaces
  • Data commons

Relevance to AI

Strategic data stewardship becomes increasingly vital in AI contexts, where governance principles must translate into actionable practices that:

  • Build ecosystem-wide trust
  • Ensure data serves public interests
  • Enable responsible AI development through proper data governance
Stefaan Verhulst headshot

Author

Stefaan Verhulst

Course Lead · Data Stewards Founder

Dr. Stefaan Verhulst is Co-Founder of the DataTank and The GovLab and the main lecturer of the data stewardship academy. In addition, he is a Research Professor at the Center for Urban Science and Progress at the Tandon School of Engineering of New York University; and a Senior Advisor to the Markle Foundation where he spent more than a decade as Chief of Research. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the open-access journal Data & Policy (Cambridge University Press); the Research Director of the MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance; Chair of the Data for Children Collaborative with Unicef; a member of the High-Level Expert Group to the European Commission on Business-to-Government Data Sharing; and of the Expert Group to Eurostat on using Private Sector data for Official Statistics. In addition he is also a member of the UNESCO Information Ethics Working Group; Researcher at the ISI Foundation (Torino, Italy); Senior Researcher at SMIT (Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology) at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) . In 2018 he was recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Academics in Digital Government globally (by the global policy platform Apolitical). Previously at Oxford University, he was the UNESCO Chairholder in Communications Law and Policy and co-founded and was the Head of the Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Center for Socio-Legal Studies. He was the Socio-Legal Fellow at Wolfson College, and is still an emeritus fellow at Oxford. He also taught for several years at the London School of Economics and was Co-Founder and Co-Director of the International Media and Info-Comms Policy and Law Studies (IMPS) at the University of Glasgow School of Law. He has published widely - including seven books- and his writings and work have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Project Syndicate, Wall Street Journal, and The Conversation (among many other outlets). He is asked regularly to present at international conferences including, for instance, TED, Collision, and the UN World Data Forum. Numerous organizations have sought his counsel on a variety of topics including data and AI governance - including the WorldBank; IDB, CAP, USAID, DFID, IDRC, AFP, the European Commission, Council of Europe, the World Economic Forum, UNICEF, OECD, UN-OCHA, UNDP, UNESCO and several other international and national private and public organizations. He is also a Linkedin Learning instructor seeking to democratize the practice of data stewardship globally.

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