Funder policies

AHRC produce a Research Funding Guide

Data Management Plan

Mandatory for all Development and Engagement Fellowship scheme, Research Grant and Follow on Funding applications. It is not required for Research Networking.

Costs incurred for managing data

Reasonable costs incurred in managing the data to enable sharing are allowable, as are the cost of longer term preservation after the end of a project. Full justification must be provided in Justification of Resources (JoR)

Normal retention period

The AHRC requires that the data intended to be shared should be available for a minimum of three years after the end of a project, but the expectation is that a longer period may be appropriate in many cases.

If you do not plan to release the data in line with AHRC guidelines this will have to be justified in your data management plan.

Where to deposit your data

The AHRC does not specify where to deposit data. You could use a subject based, general  or institutional repository when depositing data.

Further information

The DCC provides an overview of funder policies as well as summarising the key points of the AHRC policy.

The Archaeology Data Service provides support and guidance, it is the leading accredited digital repository for heritage data in the UK.

Sherpa/Juliet summarises key points of the AHRC data archiving policy.

BBSRC produce a Data Sharing Policy.

Data Management Plan

All applications seeking research grant funding from BBSRC must submit a data management plan.

Costs incurred for managing data

Subject to normal rules on grant expenditure and provided these are fully justified within the application.

The F.A.Q.’s section of the website says: “BBSRC expects applicants to utilise pre-existing data standards and resources for dissemination, where appropriate. Where justifiable, however, funding to support the management and sharing of research data (for example staffing, physical resources such as storage and networking capability) can be requested as part of the full economic cost of a research project. BBSRC also has specific funding mechanisms, for example the Tools & Resources Development Fund and Bioinformatics & Biological Resources scheme, which have key roles to play in supporting the Data Sharing Policy”

Normal retention period

Data must be retained for 10 years after project completion

Where to deposit your data

Researchers are encouraged to use existing infrastructure to facilitate data sharing where possible. BBSRC funds or otherwise supports a number of such resources.

Researchers are encouraged to share data through mechanisms affording the widest availability for generating added value and enabling re-use.

IP

BBSRC recognises that commercialisation may require periods of exclusive use of data, it should not preclude or unduly delay or prevent data sharing.

Further information

Sherpa/Juliet summarises the key points of the BBSRC data archiving policy.  

For more detailed specific BBSRC enquiries email Michael Ball.

Any data funded by CRUK should be made as widely and freely accessible as possible. Refer to the policy and F.A.Q.'s on their website.

Data Management Plan

Researchers will be expected to write a data management and sharing plan. Data sharing guidelines and practical guidance in writing a plan can be found on their website.

Costs incurred for managing data

CRUK recently removed the restriction on including costs associated with RDM. Funds for ‘proportionate, relevant data management and sharing activities‘ can be included within your budgeted grant proposals.

Normal retention period

CRUK expects that data is available for sharing within the science community for five years after the project ends.

Where to deposit your data

Due to the diverse nature of research CRUK has opted not to be too prescriptive about where and how the data is shared, as long as it is shared. Where data cannot be shared, specific reasons must be given. Information about specific repositories can be found in the practical guidance on writing data sharing plans.

IP

This is covered within the F.A.Q.'s. Cancer Research UK ‘support the appropriate protection and use of patents and other intellectual property rights to maximise the opportunity to benefit patients’. It may be necessary to delay data sharing and modify any data sharing plan to ensure that patient benefit can be maximised. ‘If any researcher suspects that an invention has or may be made they are expected to notify their technology transfer office and Cancer Research Technology and to defer sharing any relevant data until the situation has been reviewed’.

EPSRC believes all decisions relating to the management of research data should adhere to certain principles. ‘EPSRC-funded research data is a public good produced in the public interest and should be made freely and openly available with as few restrictions as possible in a timely and responsible manner’

Data Management Plan

Project specific policies and plans need to be in place but data management plans do not need to be submitted as part of the grant application. 

Costs incurred for managing data

You can include a funding request to support managing and sharing of research if your requirements are above what is provided by the University. Costs incurred after the project end are not included.

Normal retention period

Data required to validate our findings should be retained for 10 years. 10 years after the date of its last use, that is either by the original researchers or third parties. Thus, the retention period can be extended.

Sharing your data

Published results should always include a data access statement, which includes information on how to access the supporting data.

If access to your data is restricted there should still be a metadata record in an appropriate repository. This record should contain information about your data, why, when and how it was generated. Including reasons for the restricted access and a summary of the conditions which must be satisfied for access to be granted.

Where to deposit your data

EPSRC does not specify a particular location. Researchers are expected to utilise institutional and subject based repositories.

Further information

Sherpa/Juliet provides a concise summary of the EPSRC data archiving policy. 

Publicly-funded research is seen as a valuable resource “which shall be made openly available and accessible with as few restrictions as possible in a timely and responsible manner”

Data Management Plan

Data management plans are compulsory in any research proposal that will generate data with the exception of studentship applications. The ESRC Data Management Plan Guidance is to be used as reference point. Issues such as confidentiality, data ownership, copyright or subject anonymity should be considered prior to commencing research.

Costs incurred for managing data

ESRC Research Data Policy states the cost of long-term preservation cannot be included in any grant proposal. However, the costs for activities relating to the preparation of data for curation and sharing are allowed.

The UK Data Service provides a costing tool to help budget for data management.

Normal retention period

There is no stipulation as to how long data must be retained, so reference should be made to the UoL research data management policy.  However, data created or repurposed during an ESRC project must be made available for reuse or archiving within 3 months of the end of the grant.

Where to deposit your data

You can deposit anywhere, as long as the repository is a ‘responsible data repository’. The data must be made available under FAIR data principles, with as few restrictions as possible, and must be assigned a persistent identifier. This can be an institutional repository.

ESRC fund the UK Data Service and in certain circumstances will explicitly state this data repository must be used.

Where the UK Data Service is not the repository of choice, it must be informed of the published location and supplied with the DOI.

Horizon 2020 have created an ‘Open Research Data Pilot’ project in order to encourage access and re-use of research data, with associated funding opportunities. Successful applicants are able to opt out of the scheme at any time.

Data Management Plan

Applications made under this scheme will have to create a DMP which outlines the data policy and addresses issues required to ensure the data complies with FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable). The DMP must be created within the first six months of the project. Other projects not under the scheme are also invited to submit a DMP. Annex 1 of the guidance addresses the main points that should be covered by a DMP.

Costs incurred for managing data

It is advised that the costs of data management should be considered within the DMP and one of the incentives for participating in the pilot is that “costs related to open access to research data are eligible”.

Normal retention period

There is no specific time period for the retention of data within the policy

Where to deposit your data

Horizon 2020 is not prescriptive about the location of data but "Preference should be given to certified repositories which support open access where possible”.

The MRC policy has a similar stance on open data to the other UKRI funders as shown in their policy statement:

“The MRC expects valuable data arising from MRC-funded research to be made available to the scientific community with as few restrictions as possible so as to maximize the value of the data for research and for eventual patient and public benefit. Such data must be shared in a timely and responsible manner”

Data Management Plan

Yes, the MRC describe them as an integral part of the application process. Guidance for both applicants and peer reviewers, along with a link to a template, can be found on the website.

Costs incurred for managing data

Although it is not absolutely clear which costs will be met by the MRC, points 9 and 10 of 'What is required of a DMP?' in this guidance document provides information regarding funding requests for data management. The document advises to differentiate between costs carefully in the funding application between (i) collecting and 'cleaning' new data; (ii) own research on newly acquired and legacy data; (iii) ongoing data curation and preservation; and (iv) providing access data-sharing.

In early 2018, the MRC (together with Wellcome, Cancer Research UK, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) announced that they would cover all costs involved in sharing academic clinical trials data via the Clinical Study Data Request (CSDR) website.

Normal retention period

MRC differentiates between research data (minimum 10 years) and data that originates from health and clinical trials (minimum 20 years) in these MRC good research practice principles and guidelines.

Where to deposit your data

The MRC does not ‘prescribe when or how researchers should preserve and share data’, but does expect provision for doing so at the planning stage.

Researchers would be advised to share data through a discipline based or institutional repository.

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The MRC policy states that 'a limited, defined, period of exclusive use of data for primary research is reasonable according to the nature and value of the data and how they are generated and used.'

Further information is available in Section H of this Ethics document.

NERC adheres to a Data Policy.

‘NERC expects everyone that it funds to manage the data they produce in an effective manner for the lifetime of their project, and for these data to be made available for others to use with as few restrictions as possible, and in a timely manner.’

Data Management Plan

All NERC proposals require an Outline Data Management Plan to identify data sets of long-term value that should be made available to NERC data centres for archiving and reuse at the end of the fellowship or grant. Successful proposals will be required to submit a full data management plan 3-6 months of the start date of the grant.

Cost incurred in managing data

Particular costs are not specified, but researchers are required to include costs for their project specific management activities. This would include any costs incurred in depositing in NERC supported data centres.

Normal retention period

A minimum of 10 years but for some datasets will be longer.

Where to deposit your data

NERC has a network of data centres that provide a focal point for NERC's scientific data and information. The NERC Data Value checklist will help identify which data should be considered appropriate for their data centres. Research data that is not appropriate for a NERC data centre can be shared via an Institutional repository.

Contact the relevant NERC data centre for guidance on how to preserve model code and model output.

Further information

The DCC provides an overview of the funder policies as well as summarising the key point of the NERC policy.

Sherpa/Juliet has a summary of the NERC data archiving policy.

For more information, contact the NERC data management coordinator data@nerc.ukri.org

Data is one the major outputs of STFC and a major source of its economic impact. The full STFC policy can be found on their website.

Data Management Plan

The STFC DMP guidance states a DMP is mandatory for most STFC schemes, except Public Engagement, where scientific data is collected. It should be no longer than two A4 pages and attached to the JeS proforma.

Costs incurred for managing data

Data management should use existing skills and resources. Any additional specialist staff, training or computational facilities required need to be justified if they are included in the grant proposal.

Normal retention period

Minimum 10 years. Note for "data that by their nature cannot be re-measured", efforts should be made to retain them indefinitely.

Where to deposit your data

Data should be placed in an established repository chosen to maximise the scientific value from the aggregation of related data.  This can be an institutional repository or a discipline specific repository

IP

It is reasonable for a research team to exploit the results of their research, including any intellectual property. If in a specific scientific field there are accepted norms as regards any proprietary period, these should be adopted. Generally, however, STFC expects published data to be made publicly available within 6 months of publication, unless there is a properly justified reason as to why this cannot happen.

Wellcome's policy covers physical materials, "such as antibodies and cell lines", as well as more traditional digital data.

Where research data relates to public health emergencies, researchers must share quality assured interim and final data as rapidly and widely as possible, in advance of any journal publication.

Data Management Plan

When applying for a grant you must consider how you are to manage and share anticipated outputs. Where these outputs are significant, that is they hold clear value as a resource for others (industry or academia), you will need to include an Outputs Management Plan.

Costs incurred for managing data

This outputs management plan will be reviewed when making the funding decision. The Wellcome Trust will fund any justified costs listed in the plan as part of the overall funding of the research, if you are successful in your application.

The Resources required section of the guidance contains more detail.

Normal retention period

The Wellcome Trust does not say how long data should be retained, but University of Liverpool policy is for data to be retained for at least 10 years.

Where to deposit your data

Authors are asked to deposit their data in an approved repository, a list of which can be found in their Data Guidelines. Publication is preferred under the Public Domain CC0 license which facilitates data reuse.

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The outputs management plan needs to set out the approach most likely to maximise adoption and use of the outputs by the wider research community, whether this be through open sharing or commercial licensing.

Consideration should also be given to the greater value your output may have if incorporated into an existing commercial or open resource rather than making it available as a standalone product.

Further guidance is available from their ‘Policy on intellectual property and patenting’

Further information

The DCC provides an overview of the funder policies as well as summarising the key points of the Wellcome Trust policy.

Sherpa/Juliet has a summary of Wellcome Trust data archiving policy.

For more information email the Open Research team at Wellcome Trust

Blood Cancer UK

According to Blood Cancer UK's Project Grant Guidance, the charity 'expects valuable data, reagents and software arising from Blood Cancer UK-funded research to be made available to the scientific community with as few restrictions as possible so as to maximise the value of the research and for eventual patient and public benefit. Such data must be shared in a timely and responsible manner, making use of online open repositories, public databases and community-led reagent stores.'

Breast Cancer Now

Breast Cancer Now's Project Grant Application Guidelines state they are 'interested in finding out how researchers are sharing their research data, in addition to publishing in peer review journals and presenting at conferences'. It now requires a data sharing plan to be completed when applying for project grants.

As a member of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), Breast Cancer Now endorses the NCRI data sharing policy, and asks that researchers share the data generated from publicly funded research.

British Heart Foundation

Information on patient data and its use for research is available on the BHF blog.

Parkinsons UK

Parkinsons UK have a Data Sharing and Preservation Policy that states 'applicants seeking funding from Parkinson’s UK will be required to submit a data sharing plan as part of their research grant application'

All data arising from the research it funds should be made as freely available as possible, after privacy and intellectual property concerns have been accounted for. An exclusive period for the use of the data is allowed, after which the data should be shared as widely as possible, in an appropriate manner, for at least five years.