Data Management Plan

Funders increasingly oblige researchers to submit a data management plan in specified format with the proposal. A data management plan is a compilation of statements about practices and formalities. We would be happy to advise you on the creation of data management plans. Please contact the TUM Research Service Centre.

What is a data management plan?

In a data management plan, you describe how you will handle your research data in the course of and after your research project. You plan for example, how you want to save, archive and possibly publish your data, and which resources you need for doing so.

Why is a data management plan important?

For the following reasons, preliminary considerations on research data facilitate their management:

You plan specific requirements ahead, anticipate potential difficulties, and are thus able to react in time.
You define responsibilities of certain aspects of research data management in advance.
The documentation in research data management supports knowledge transfer where there are changes in personnel.
With a strategy for the handling of research data, you meet requirements for funding by national and international funding organisations, e.g.

DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) requirements
European Commission requirements

Systematic research data management allows financial planning: costs for data management are considered in grant approvals.

How and when is a data management plan written?

The following topics are addressed
- Organisational aspects about the research project
- Characteristics of the data
- Structure and storage of the data
- Ethical and legal aspects
- Aims with regard to sharing and publishing
- Responsibilities, costs, and resources
The data management plan is written before the project starts and will be adapted during the course of the project. You can expand it when further details become clear at a later date, like methods of analysis or a strategy on reuse.