Connecting science and technology has been a red thread throughout Erik’s career. From humble beginnings writing code to process large next-generation sequencing data, to designing cloud pipelines at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge. After several years focused on technology, his work gradually shifted toward policy and strategy, standing at the origins of one of the first Data Competence Centres in the Netherlands. Facilitating the cultural change needed to adopt data and technology as an accelerator for research added a human dimension to the mix of tech and science. Currently, as head of Research IT Services at Wageningen University & Research and chair of the Yoda consortium, he works with institutions across the Netherlands to shape sustainable research data infrastructures at national scale.