Planning and costing

Funding applications should include costings for data management. Most funders will cover some costs (larger projects this could mean the funding of a data steward or manager) but rarely do they cover everything. Costs incurred after the end of the project will not be covered. Check your funder’s requirements and estimate the costs of managing your research data not only throughout your project but also at the end, when preparing to share or archive data.

When completing a data management plan, you can detail the roles and responsibilities required during your project to make sure the data is managed correctly. You should consider the ethics of your project at this stage in relation to the data you plan to collect, process and store. Such considerations may increase your obligations and costs later on.

As each project is different, it would be difficult to give an estimate, but the following should be considered:

• Number of staff hours required to manage data, anonymise it, manage access, etc.
• What software and tools you will need and if this requires additional expenditure.
• The amount of storage space and the processing speeds required. For larger big data projects, you may have to talk to IT Services about your specific circumstances.
• If you anticipate large quantities of paper data, then you may need to consider digitisation costs.
• Your costs can be broken down into those of collecting, curating, analysing and finally preservation and sharing. Collecting, curating and analysing are direct costs attributable to the project. Liverpool Research Data can help and advice on preservation and sharing. Check your funder requirements.

For UKRI funders you cannot claim for costs that are centrally supported, so check what services the University provides before completing your application. All direct costs must be incurred before the end date of the grant. UKRI Guidance

UK Data Service has developed a useful costing tool.