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A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal document that specifies how research data will be handled both during and after a research project. It identifies key actions to ensure that research data are safe, sustainable and – where possible – accessible and reusable. A DMP should be considered a ‘living’ document - it is ideally created before or at the start of a research project, but updated when necessary as the project progresses. Planning for data management is therefore not a one-off event, but a process. To help you, there are DMP templates made available. The DMP template for H2020 projects provided by the EC includes:

  • A summary of your data
  • How to make your data FAIR
  • Information about costs and resources
  • Information about data security
  • Ethical aspects

Argos is OpenAIRE’s open source service for writing and publishing DMPs, and is also available as an EOSC resource. Argos creates open, FAIR and machine actionable DMPs that are interconnected with publications, data, software and other outputs that they relate to. You can use the Horizon Europe Template of Argos to get started with writing and automatically completing some parts of your DMP which you can then publish in Zenodo with a click! 

DMPonline is another online tool that provides a number of templates representing the requirements of different funders and institutions, such as Horizon 2020. It also provides further guidance to understand and answer template-specific questions. Plans created with DMPonline can be easily shared with collaborators and exported in various formats.

If you are based in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, South Africa or Spain, check out other DMPonline installations here.