Data Management Plan – DMP

The Data Management Plan (DMP) is a document that describes the data that are expected to be generated or reused during the course of a research project, how they will be managed, described, analysed and archived, and the mechanisms that will be used at the end of the project to share and preserve the data. It should also be remembered that it is a living document and should be updated whenever there are changes in the nature of the data or in the way they are managed.

If you need to draw up a Data Management Plan for your research project, for a funding proposal or for your funded research, there are several online tools available today that can help you.

 

Tools for compiling DMPs

  • One tool we recommend is DMPonline, created by the University of Edinburgh’s Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and the University of California Curation Centre (UC3) working closely with research funding bodies and universities. On DMPonline you can create a free account (you can use your PoliTO credentials) and choose the required template associated with the funding body (e.g. H2020, HEU, ERC etc.) or a generic template. Here you will find a short video on how to write a DMP using the DMPonline too. DMPonline also provides guidance on how to complete each section of the DMP and many examples of public DMPs are uploaded on the site.

Others are:

  • Data Stewardship Wizard: this is a guided questionnaire integrated with numerous external information resources for FAIR data management. This tool also offers a choice of templates according to the funding body and provides useful indicators for assessing the FAIRness of one’s own data. The DMP is exportable in machine-readable formats.
  • Argos: is the platform developed by OpenAIRE to create DMPs according to FAIR principles and open access best practices. Like the other two tools, it allows you to choose a suitable template or to create your own template. DMPs published over time by researchers from various institutions are available on Argos and the DMP is exportable in machine-readable formats.

PoliTO support and contacts

For editing, completion or revision of your DMP, or for any other information about the DMP, you can contact us at mauro.paschetta@polito.it or open.science@polito.it and we will get back to you within a week.

Resources:

  • Active data management: Samba/CIFS/nfs Project/Research Storage (archiving) based on resilient high-availability NAS systems.
  • Cloud@PoliTO: virtual machine/data centre hosted in GARR’s federated private cloud, on OpenStack platform. On request and after evaluation of the request possibility of Kubernetes-based containers
  • HPC@PoliTO: high-performance computing clusters for research

Precise quotas, access policies and costs are to be defined/negotiated for HPC@PoliTo, but currently three main classes of service can be identified:

  • Basic Access: resources are free and offered to the maximum extent possible, depending on free space and resource availability
  • Premium Access: users have privileged access and quota, for a fee
  • Hardware hosting: users have premium access for ad-hoc purchased hardware to integrate storage, private cloud and HPC systems.

For information and requests please contact: cloud@polito.it – hpc@polito.it

 

For in-depth privacy-related questions or Data Protection Impact Assessments, please refer to this page.

The RIMIN (Research, Relationships with Companies and Innovation) directorate provides information on how to deal with ethical issues when responding to competitive calls from national and international funding bodies (contact: RIMN directorate– email: europoli@polito.it). If your research involves people or if you have other ethical questions related to your research, please contact the Research ethics committee.

In order to effectively commercialise the research results of a scientific project, a careful assessment of the timing and possibility of sharing data and software is crucial. To understand the “ifs” and “whens” of sharing data and source code related to projects, please refer to the webinar (here for the slides) on PoliTO’s Technology Transfer System. If you have any questions, please contact the TRIN Area Office at TRIN Area Office at brevetti.spinoff@polito.it