Research data management plan

This is an archive copy of the content.
Click to return to the first page.

The handling of research data should be planned for at the outset of a research project by developing a data management plan (DMP). This document helps us to prepare, organise, store and openly share data, files and other supporting documents during and after the project.

Many research funding agencies and European research programmes now require us to submit a research data management plan. These plans have become mandatory for Horizon Europe and European Research Council (ERC) projects as of 2021, regardless of whether the data is generated or re-used. Beneficiaries must submit them within the contractual deadline, which is usually 6 months from the signature of the contract. Research Data Management Plans are also required by some national and international agencies and organisations, such as the US NSF, UKRI, NWO Netherlands, Swiss SNSF, Wellcome Trust, etc. For more information, see DiRROS Data.

The Research Data Management Plan is a living document that must be kept up-to-date throughout the research project, and a final version that is aligned with the actual situation must be submitted at the end of the project.

Recommended practice is to open and publish the plans on relevant platforms such as. Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) Journal, or in dedicated repositories such as. DMP Online. Both platforms also provide many examples of good practice in the development of research data management plans, as well as plans launched by other researchers.

What does the Research Data Management Plan contain?

It defines:

  • Who will be responsible for data management?
  • What data will be collected or generated?
  • How will data be collected or generated?
  • How will data be stored and backed up during the survey? What is the long-term data storage plan?
  • What documentation and metadata will accompany the data?
  • How will ethical and legal compliance be ensured?
  • How will copyright and intellectual property rights be addressed?
  • How will data access and security be managed?
  • How will you share data?
  • Will there be any restrictions on data sharing?
  • What resources will be needed to manage the research data according to the plan?

The research data management plan must be in line with the requirements of the research field and the overarching and institutional policies of open science. You can find out more about which Slovene and European open science policies you need to take into account.

Tools and guidelines for the preparation of research data plans

We recommend that you follow the templates provided by funders and other institutions when developing your research data management plan, for example:

CTK UL's information specialists have translated the Research Data Management Plan template for Horizon Europe projects into Slovenian and provided explanatory notes to help you understand the plan and prepare your answers to the questions. The annotated template is available online at DiRROS Data.

Proposals from other institutions (e.g. national funding agencies) can be found on the following websites DMPOnline, DMPTool, Data Stewardship Wizard and Argos. These websites not only offer a database of templates for plans, but also online tools that make it easier to create a plan, share files with other members of the research team or project consortium and edit documents together. You can find out more about these tools at DiRROS Data.

Skip to content