Responsibilities and resources

Tip: Why is this topic important
» Defining responsibilities, project involvement and cost related to research data management is highly important when planning and conducting research projects
» Relevant estimates of costs for research data management should be included when applying for financing, and this chapter will help you to develop relevant estimates

About this chapter

In this chapter, you are asked to define responsibilities, who will be involved in the project, and the cost related to research data management. Remember that additional expertise can be needed when covering the areas of responsibility in the project. Also remember that cost can be relevant both for facilities, equipment, hardware, software, license costs or other recurring fees, preservation and archiving, costs for preparing data for publication and more. The questions in this chapter cover such aspects of research data management.

Question-specific guidance

Have data management responsibilities in the project been assigned?

Being specific about data management responsibilities in a project is recommended. Contributors and their roles should be specified in the chapter ‘About the Data Management Plan’. In educational settings, the supervisor(s) should be specified as they have formal responsibility for data management.

To execute the project, is additional expertise required?

In the context of research data management this could include:

Data Stewards
Data Engineers
Research software engineers
Software developers
Data entry specialists
Data protection specialists
Legal advisors

To execute the project, are arrangements needed to access facilities or equipment?

Necessary arrangements to access facilities or equipment may include training project members, arranging facility access, or executing security clearance. Consider that these processes can be time-consuming, and therefore should be planned for.

Contributors and their roles should be specified in the chapter ‘About the Data Management Plan’. In educational settings, the supervisor(s) should be specified as they have formal responsibility for data management.

Will you require hardware or software in addition to what is usually available in the institute?

Please specify whether access needs to be arranged or equipment or software needs to be purchased in order to enable the project.

Will there be software license costs or other recurring fees to work with data or documents?

Please specify whether you are using any commercially licensed products to keep data, software or documents available, for which a regular fee must be paid.

Make sure required commercially licensed products will be kept running by the department or institute. It is advisable to also have a plan for ensuring data access when a service is discontinued, e.g. by having data copies in a non-proprietary format.

Will data storage in the active phase of the project be associated with costs?

Please specify whether data storage will come with a cost in the active phase.

Will data preservation and archiving be associated with costs?

Please specify whether data preservation and archiving beyond the project phase will be associated with costs. This may include fees for data curation.

Did you budget for the time and effort it will take to prepare the data for publication?

Please specify whether preparation of data for publication will be associated with costs. Consider the time and effort required.

What will be the total costs for data management in the project?

Summarise the expected costs based on the answering previous questions and estimated costs. If you are converting currencies, remember to indicate the conversion rate.