Open research data: summary and final specifications
All new project funding applications must include a data management plan (DMP). A draft DMP will be accepted if considered plausible by the SNSF.
As of October, data management plans (entered in mySNF) will be an integral part of project funding applications submitted to the SNSF. The management plans do not need to be finalised by the submission deadline. They are drafts and do not bear on the project evaluation. Once the SNSF has approved a project for funding, the DMP can be adapted, modified and extended throughout the duration of the grant. The final version of the DMP needs to be submitted on completion of the project.
Learning process
In the past months, the SNSF has actively informed researchers about this new chapter in its open research data (ORD) strategy and responded to their questions. It has also continually updated the relevant FAQs.
Some answers will only be forthcoming in the coming months and years, depending on the solutions discussed and proposed by various scientific communities. The latter are ideally positioned to, for example, select the best databases or offer a precise definition of data in their respective disciplines. "It's a learning process for everyone involved," says Ayşim Yılmaz, who is responsible for ORD at the SNSF. "We hope to learn from the scientific communities and gather valuable information."
Step by step, the SNSF intends to introduce the DMP requirement in its other funding schemes as well. The best way to stay informed is to consult the web page dedicated to the relevant scheme. Further information about DMPs is available on the SNSF website, along with the corresponding guidelines for researchers.
All data and metadata published by the applicants must be made available in a digital repository. The data must be formatted in a way that enables users to locate, access and re-use them, provided there are no legal, ethical, copyright or other issues.