Lindsay Callaghan, a Data Curation Specialist at NRF-SAEON’s uLwazi Node, has won first place in the 2026 World Data System Data Stewardship Award (https://worlddatasystem.org/news-events/data-stewardship-awards/ ). The award is granted to individuals “…who have significantly improved the quality, integrity, and accessibility of research data”.

Lindsay’s primary focus since starting at SAEON in 2018 has been the CoreTrustSeal-certified Open Data Platform (ODP), as well as the establishment and implementation of project systems for stakeholders, including the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Marine Information Management System (MIMS), which operates under the National Oceans and Coastal Information Management System (OCIMS).

Her work involves the high-level conceptualisation of data archive systems and the writing of the policies and standard operating procedures that detail how the curation processes are implemented, through to the daily work of supporting NRF-SAEON platform users with data queries. Her work is strongly informed by the FAIR Principles, and her curation philosophy is centered on the promotion of open science, encouraging data sharing, and the improvement of the user experience for data providers and users of NRF-SAEON’s systems.

She has also served as an ex-officio member of the CoreTrustSeal Board since 2018, assisting the Secretariat through the management of the review process. This voluntary work has exposed her to an international community of trusted digital repositories and has been invaluable in forming her understanding of the field. Lindsay co-wrote the 2023 CoreTrustSeal application which earned NRF-SAEON’s ODP the second CoreTrustSeal certification in Africa at the time.