Howto articles How to create a Data Management Section

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When applying for funding, it becomes more and more common practice to write a Data Management Section. Most research funders require one as part of a project proposal. You want your project proposal to stand out from others in order to heighten your chances of being selected and acquiring funding for your research project.

Tip

Are you writing a grant proposal but you are unsure about what to answer to questions on the data management of your project? It is important to think about which data could be relevant and how these data could be stored so that they are accessible for reuse. Keep in mind that most funders are in favor of open access and the reuse of research data when writing a Data Management Section.

Get started with this sample text

A first step towards a full stack Data Management Plan is the Data Management Section.
Below you can find a sample text for a Data Management Section. You can copy it and adapt it to your situation.

Warning

Please be aware of the fact that this text is based on the use of the DataHub infrastructure. Moreover, you will have to add a text with an explanation of your research project yourself.

Sample text

[ Add a description of your research project. In this description you should mention e.g. what the research question is focused on, what type of data will be generated, and what volume of data will be generated. As for storage, reusability and accessibility you can use the sample text below (in case you are going to make use of the DataHub infrastructure). ]

All data generated in this project will be deposited at the institutional research data management infrastructure DataHub Maastricht. Data in this institutional repository will be stored according to the FAIR principles. DataHub Maastricht works in accordance with funder and university data policies, and is compliant with current (and future) law and regulations.

For stable storage of the data during and after research, the following resources will be required: sufficient storage capacity, a backup system for the storage and sufficient network bandwidth for storing and accessing the data. All these requirements are met by DataHub Maastricht, which provides ample storage capacity (hundreds of Gigabytes), is backed up two times per day and can be accessed with a speed of up to 1 Gb/s.

The dataset(s) generated by this research project, will be provided with metadata. The use of an already existing metadata standard (ISA) combined with the use of ontologies from various open ontologies provided by EBI's Ontology Lookup Service, will assure that the interoperability of the data gathered in this project is optimal. DataHub’s vision is to structure (meta)data as early as possible in the process. To provide optimal interoperability, we will try to use as much of the standard vocabulary as possible. For some metadata this is already forced by the DataHub infrastructure for interoperability reasons. Some fields will be annotated with an ontology that will be research domain specific. When possible, we will provide a mapping to a more commonly used ontology.

If a dataset is stored in the DataHub infrastructure, a Unique Persistent Identifier (PID) is automatically generated for this dataset. This unique PID refers to the corresponding data set stored within the DataHub infrastructure. The dataset receives a Handle PID. The resulting publication(s) will also contain these PIDs and will be identified with a DOI provided by the publisher. DataHub also provides the ability to transfer metadata or even a complete dataset onto DataVerseNL.

DataHub Maastricht provides services on sustainability and access during and after the research project. For long-term storage an agreement will be made on storing at DataHub Maastricht, possibly in combination with an external domain specific repository. Data in the institutional repository will be stored in accordance with funder and university data policies.

The DataHub infrastructure has an access management layer available within the infrastructure. Only people with the correct permissions will be able to upload new data and access existing data. After an agreed period, the data will be made available to the DataHub Maastricht community or beyond. Personal sensitive data on human subject will not be made available for ethical/privacy reasons.

NWO Data Management Section

NWO requires Veni and Vidi candidates to complete a paragraph on data management in the application form (question 2e).

You can answer the questions in your NWO application form, or you can use our web-based tool DMPMaastricht. The guidance provided in this tool is intended to help you compose this paragraph. For each question you have to answer in the Veni/Vidi application form, this guidance asks a set of questions that will help you to decide what information to include in the data management paragraph for your particular research proposal. It also contains information about the facilities available at MUMC+.

The NWO funding process explained
NWO Grant Rules

Writing a NWO Data Management Section with the DMPMaastricht tool

You can create a Data Management Section using our DMP tool by taking the following steps:

Open the DMP tool: DMPMaastricht
Select the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as primary funding organisation.
Select the NWO data management / Question 2e template.
Fill in the necessary fields.
Download or share your Data Management Section.
Add this section to your application form.

Your Data Management Section will be stored for future reference and to share with your funder or other stakeholders.