Someone writing a data management plan

Data Management Plan

Someone writing a data management plan
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A data management plan (DMP)External link describes the strategies and measures for handling research data during and after a project. Its goal is to approach and determine the technical, organizational and legal aspects of research data management as early as possible. Therefore, the development of a data management plan should be part of project planning, and is expected by a growing number of research funding organizations (e.g. DFG, EU Horizon 2020) when applying for research funds.

Aspects of a data management plan

A data management plan should include the following topics:

  • A project description
  • Existing types of data
  • Data generated in the project
  • Data organisation
  • Administrative and legal aspects
  • Archiving, data exchange and data publication
  • Responsibilities and duties
  • Costs and resources

Requirements of the funding agencies (July 2023)

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

The DFG guidelines for submitting project proposalsExternal link (in German) state that project proposals submitted to the DFG must include a section on the handling of research data. The section should include information on the type, scope and documentation of the data as well as the planned storage and possibilities for subsequent use. It is not currently necessary to update the information during the course of the project. 

European Commission - Horizon Europe

For the initial application for project funding of the Horizon Europe program, only a section with considerations on research data management is required.  A complete DMP must be submitted after the project is funded. An update of the DMP is required in case of significant changes, as well as at the end of the project.

European Commission - Horizon 2020

European Commission - ERC 

The European Commission/ERC (European Research Council) has issued information concerning Data Management Plan in ERC projects. The Data Management Plan must be submitted by ERC project month 6.

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

The BMBF requires a data management plan for some funding programs. If a DMP is required, it must be submitted directly with the application. The content of the DMP and whether it needs to be updated depends on the respective funding program.

Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL)

The BMEL also wants to contribute to the security and reusability of research data within the framework of its funding measures and expects the funded research projects to operate a research data management according to the FAIR Data principlesExternal link. For this purpose, the project-executing agency, the Federal Institute for Agriculture and Food (ptble), has prepared a handoutExternal link (in German) for applicants and funding recipients. It contains questions to be considered in the conception and implementation of a data management plan (DMP) and describes the reporting and documentation obligations towards the BMEL. 

VolkswagenStiftung

The VolkswagenStiftung expects a data management plan (DMP) for larger amounts of data. The DMP of the target repository is to be used. The aim is to prepare the research data publicly and non-commercially for data reuse. It is recommended to seek expert help for the creation of the DMP as well as for the choice of repository. For an overview of existing repositories, it is also possible to find links to the Directory of Research Data Repositories re3dataExternal link and the DFG-Portal for research infrastructures RIsourcesExternal link. If one does not yet know where to store the data generated in the project, the foundation's Basic Data Management PlanExternal link can be used.

Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung (CZS)

The Carl Zeiss Stiftung (CZS) requires a research data concept for some of its funding programmes (e.g. CZS TransferExternal link (in German), CZS endowed professorshipsExternal link or CZS BreakthroughsExternal link). The elaboration and quality of this concept are important criteria in the evaluation of project proposals. A concept is expected to provide information on the planned handling of research data with regard to privacy, open source, open access, shared databases and reproducibility.

Further reading