On this page you will find information about data management requirements and expectations from other major funders who have published requirements for data management. Click on the link below to go to guidance for your funder. If you are applying for a grant that requires a Data Management Plan to be submitted but there is no information on this page, or on the UKRI Funder Requirements page, please contact the Research Data Service.
You can also check for data management and open access policy requirements of all funders through the Sherpa Juliet database.
We can provide guidance on writing your Data Management Plan and are happy to review your Data Management Plan before grant submission. Please contact the Research Data Service for more information.
The British Academy does not currently have a formal policy on research data or data sharing however it does, for many of the funding streams, have a section on the application form asking for details of 'who and where any electronic or digital data (including datasets) developed during the project will be stored, along with details on the appropriate method of access'. Additionally, they note that 'it is a condition of the award that all data be freely accessible during, and beyond, the lifetime of the award.
Not currently required.
No current guidance available.
In the application form there is a section for stating the 'appropriate method of access' to datasets. Whilst data access statements are not formally required, it is implicit in the guidance that digital data (including datasets) be freely accessible that there is an expectation that information on arrangements for accessing any electronic or digital outputs be included in any publications arising from the project. There is guidance on writing data access statements in our 'Archiving and sharing data' guide.
In their application form the British Academy sets out an expectation that any electronic or digital data (including datasets) developed during the project will be stored and made available during after the lifetime of the project. There is no minimum duration of data retention given. As a condition of the award of a Leverhulme / British Academy Small Grant Award it is expected that the end of grant report provides information on where the digital resources have been deposited, or a waiver statement for data deposit.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) expects that 'data arising from the research that it funds should be managed and made available as widely and freely as possible to maximise public benefit'. Data 'must be shared in a timely and responsible manner and researchers..are required to adhere to any relevant regulatory requirements including those relating to the ethical use of data'.
All applicants for CRUK grants are required to submit a Data Management and Sharing Plan as part of their grant application. A Data Management and Sharing Plan template (Word document) is provided for the Population Research Committee schemes. For the other funding boards there is a box on the Electronic Grants Management System (eGMS) application form for providing the Data Management and Sharing Plan as free text and CRUK provide guidance on the proposed topics to be covered in the plan.
CRUK will allow for costs related to data sharing to be included in the grant budget and this can include costs of:
Data management costs must be 'reasonable and proportionate in the context of the overall grant'. Note that data sharing costs 'do not include open access publication fees'.
CRUK does not require researchers to include data access statements in their publications, though it suggests their use as a way of making the data discoverable to other research groups. Secondary users of the data should give credit to the data generators and sharers by means of collaboration agreements or data citations. Therefore, CRUK encourages researchers to publish their data in an archive that will assign a persistent identifier, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). There is guidance on writing data access statements in our 'Archiving and sharing data' guide.
CRUK stipulate that datasets underpinning publications should be released simultaneously or shortly after publication, though CRUK accepts that large quantities of raw data may take longer to prepare for sharing. A limited extension period of exclusive use may be permitted providing that the period is clearly defined and justified in the Data Management and Sharing Plan. Delays to the publication of data, or restrictions on the release of data, are permitted to allow for filing of patent applications and to protect commercial confidentiality.
CRUK expects that all data resulting from a grant, regardless of whether it has been used in a publication, is preserved and available for sharing with the research community for a minimum period of five years following the end of a grant.
The European Research Council (ERC) supports the FAIR data principles: that research data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-useable. Therefore data should be: '(a) identified in a persistent manner using community conventions, and described using sufficiently rich metadata; (b) stored in such a way that they can be accessed by humans and machines; (c) structure in such a way that they can be combined with other datasets and (d) licenced or have terms-of-use that spell out how they can be used by others'.
All ERC projects funded under work programmes from 2017 have participated in the Horizon 2020 Open Data Pilot. Projects funded under this pilot are required to submit a Data Management Plan within six months of the start of the project.
The costs of data management, infrastructure and sharing are not explicitly addressed in the ERC costing guidelines. However, within the FAQs they state that if the research datasets have been generated or collected as part of an ERC project, the costs for depositing them in an external open access data repository are eligible for reimbursement providing they are incurred during the lifetime of the project.
For the Horizon 2020 Open Data Pilot studies any costs relating to the implementation of the pilot will be reimbursed and specific technical and professional support services will also be provided.
The ERC do not require researchers to include data access statements in their publications. However, in their Open Access guidelines they recommend that authors provide links between publications and underlying data and suggest that this is through the provision of persistent identifiers (such as DOIs) issued by data archives or repositories. There is guidance on writing data access statements in our 'Archiving and sharing data' guide.
For projects participating in the Open Data Pilot, research data needed to 'validate results presented in scientific publications' must be deposited in an online data repository as soon as possible. Data must, as far as possible, be accessible for third parties to 'use, mine, exploit, reproduce and disseminate free of charge'. It is also expected that projects will provide information about the tools and instruments necessary for validating the results.
Obligations to protect results, confidentiality, security and personal data still apply and reasons for not making specific parts of the data openly accessible must be given in the Data Management Plan.
There are no specific guidelines on the duration of data retention after the end of projects.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that 'data sharing is essential for expedited translation of research results into knowledge, products, and procedures to improve human health' and that 'data should be made as widely and freely available as possible while safeguarding the privacy of participants, and protecting confidential and proprietary data'. The NIH Data Sharing Policy applies to:
The NIH expects the submission of a Data Management Plan with any grant application requesting $500,000 or more of direct costs in any single year, or a statement of why data sharing is not possible. Some programme announcements may request Data Sharing Plans for applications with lower budgets. A Data Sharing or Management Plan is expected to be included for studies that are using secondary data for new purposes or meta-analysis.
The expected content of Data Management or Sharing Plans is included in the Implementation guidance of the NIH Data Sharing Policy.
NIH applicants can request funds for data sharing and archiving in their grant application. A competitive or administrative supplement can be requested from the NIH Project Officer for data that has already been collected. Investigators working with archives can get help with data preparation and cost estimation. Investigators facing considerable delays in the preparation of the final dataset for sharing may request a no-cost extension from their NIH program.
The NIH has no specific requirements regarding data access statements.
The NIH expects the timely release and sharing of data no later than the acceptance for publication of the main findings from the final dataset. The NIH recognises that investigators who collect the data have a legitimate interest in benefiting from their time and investment and will permit delays to data sharing for limited periods of time. Small Business Innovation Research grantees may withhold their data for up to four years after the end of their award for the exploitation of intellectual property.
Personal data intended for re-use must be suitably anonymised to prevent 'deductive disclosure' of participants' identities and provides options for sharing data in their Data Sharing Workbook (PDF).
The NIH expects data to be retained for three years following the end of the grant or contract agreement.
The NIHR does not have a data policy but does provide some guidance on their expectations for data sharing both in its Open Access Policy and in their guidance for award-holders on the submission of their final report. The NIHR expects that 'ideas and knowledge derived from publicly funded research must be made available and accessible for public use' and that 'the outputs of current and future research should be preserved and remain accessible for future generations'. They expect that all funded researchers should 'consider and plan for data access'.
There is currently no requirement to provide a Data Management Plan for NIHR applications. However, there is a requirement that researchers provide information in their final report on how underlying research materials, including data, can be accessed.
The NIHR does not provide any explicit guidance on funding data management costs.
The NIHR does not have any specific requirement to include data access statements in publications arising from NIHR-funded research. They do expect that the use of existing NHS patient data is acknowledged as a data citation: 'This work uses data provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support'.
The NIHR Open Access policy requires that all researchers, within their final report, must 'prepare and submit to the NIHR a statement on how underlying research materials, such as data, samples or models, can be accessed'. Examples of data sharing statements are provided in their final report guidance.
The NIHR Open Access policy does not require that data generated through NIHR-funded research is made openly available, but it does require that 'researchers consider and plan for data access'. In the final report there must be a statement on data sharing and accessibility that should 'provide a clear and positive indication of where and when the data will be shared'.
The NIHR does not provide any guidance on the duration of data retention in their policies.
The Royal Society promotes the principle that research data should be 'intelligently open' meaning that they should be discoverable, accessible, intelligible, assessable and useable. It expects award holders and their institutions to consider carefully how to manage and share data that is of benefit to the research community. It expects data to be shared in such a way as to maximise public benefit and, where appropriate, without restrictions from copyright, patents, or other methods of control. The Royal Society also expects that all users of research data acknowledge the sources of the data and abide by any terms and conditions of access.
Most Royal Society funding schemes require an outline Data Management and Sharing Plan to be submitted as part of the application if the research will generate data of significant value to the research community.
The outline plan should be provided in plain text and be no longer than 200 words or 1500 characters for the majority of the schemes. Guidance is provided on expected contents of the Data Management and Sharing Plan in each scheme's guidance notes.
The Royal Society Conditions of Award do not explicitly address costs of data management, infrastructure or sharing.
While data access statements are not an explicit part of the Royal Society Conditions of Award, they can be used to fulfill the requirements that data underlying a publication can be 'traceable'. There is guidance on writing data access statements in our 'Archiving and sharing data' guide.
The Royal Society expects datasets central to the publication of research findings - including computation, curated and observational data, and data generated by experimental procedures - to be submitted to an appropriate and openly available data repository. It does not specify a minimum retention period.
The Academy of Medical Sciences has a brief Data Management and Data Sharing Policy that highlights the importance of data preservation and sharing in maintaining research integrity. The policy states that 'institutions and researchers must ensure research data is preserved so that results can be verified and the data reused in future. The Academy expects all of its award holders to maximise the availability of research data'.
All of the Academy's research project grant schemes require submission of a Data Management and Sharing Plan and the applicant guidance gives examples of what might be included in the plan. There is no set template for the plan and the space provided varies between schemes.
The allowed costs that may be included in project budgets varies quite greatly between grant schemes but there is no specific guidance on the inclusion of data management costs. We recommend that you contact the Academy to determine whether data management costs are permitted.
There is no specific requirement for providing data access statements in publications arising from research funded by the Academy.
The Academy expects that research data is preserved 'so that the results can be verified and the data reused in future' and that it 'expects all of its award holders to maximise the availability of research data'. Therefore there is an expectation that the data are archived and shared but no specific period of data retention is given and the timing of data sharing is not addressed in the policy.
The Wellcome Trust expects its funded researchers to 'maximise access to their research data with as few restrictions as possible' It states that 'making research data widely available to the research community in a timely and responsible manner ensures that these data can be verified, built upon, and used to advance knowledge and its application to generate improvements in health'. Wellcome Trust monitors compliance with Output Management Plans and 'considers whether researchers have managed and shared their research outputs in line with our requirements'.
All applicants to Wellcome Trust funding streams are now required to submit an Output Management Plan at the time of application which should set out how you will 'maximise the value of:
The Wellcome Trust provides guidance on the expected contents of the Output Management Plan on its website. It has also provided some examples of good Output Management Plans. It expects that Output Management Plans will be dynamic and regularly reviewed throughout the life of the project. A template for the Wellcome Trust Output Management Plan is available from DMPOnline. Guidance on using DMPOnline is available from our DMPOnline guidance page.
The Wellcome Trust will be running a pilot Output Management Plan support service until September 2021, which can be accessed by successful Wellcome Trust grant applicants, or by applicants whose Output Management Plans have been flagged for improvement during the peer review process. Grant holders will be contacted by the Wellcome Trust if they are eligible for the pilot and will be asked to submit a revised Plan within 3 months of their award.
The Wellcome Trust will allow researchers to budget for all aspects of data management, and these should be discussed in the Output Management Plan. These may include:
All Wellcome Trust publications are, where appropriate, required to include a data access statement on how the data, models and other materials underpinning the publication can be accessed. There is guidance on writing data access statements in our 'Archiving and sharing data' guide.
The Wellcome Trust expects that 'researchers maximise the availability of research data, software and materials with as few restrictions as possible'. It stipulates that as a minimum the data underpinning research papers and any original software that is required to view datasets or replicate analyses should be made available to other researchers at time of publication. Data should be made available under a CC0 or CC-BY licence and software should be made available under an open software licence such as GNU General Public Licence, Apache Licence or the MIT Licence.
When the data is related to public health emergencies it must be made available in a quality-controlled format as rapidly and widely as possible in advance of publication.
Wellcome Trust recognises that there may be circumstances in which it would not be appropriate for researchers to share their data but these must be justified in the Output Management Plan. Additionally, it recognises that researchers have a right to a limited period of exclusive use of the data but that this does not exceed date of publication of the research findings.
All data sharing is expected to be undertaken in line with recognised disciplinary data standards to 'maximise the opportunities for data linkage and interoperability'.
Wellcome Trust expects that data will be preserved and shared through a research data archive or repository unless there is a 'compelling reason not to do so'. Where no discipline-specific repository exists it recommends Dryad and Figshare and institutional research data repositories are also acceptable.