My experience in academia was that data management is not well respected. Universities often see data as part of the library system which leads to a disconnect

My experience in academia was that data management is not well respected. Universities often see data as part of the library system which leads to a disconnect between data and research. I’d suggest data management needs to be a well paid career in academia, with senior level influence to enable long term open access to data. I was on a grant from the Wellcome Trust putting an epidemiology database online. This remained available until the PI moved on and their successor was decidedly less public spirited, so sadly it’s not available anymore. What can I do about that when I’m seen as a technician? I have over 8000 citations from my database work but there’s really no career in academia for me.