Funders’ data policies and costs Sarah Jones DCC, University of Glasgow Twitter: sjDCC Funded by:

Research funders’ policies

Key differences in policies EPSRC encourage the creation of DMPs, but do not include them in the peer review process Preservation periods range from 3 years to in perpetuity – most funders ask for 10+ years ESRC and NERC support designated data centres ESRC and NERC may withhold the final grant payment if data aren’t offered for deposit Cancer Research UK states explicitly that it will NOT provide additional funds for RDM

Eligible costs The RCUK Common Principles state that: “It is appropriate to use public funds to support the management and sharing of publicly- funded research data.” However, it is unclear exactly what costs can be included in grant applications and how. The DCC held an RDMF event with funders to discuss this.

RDMF: funding RDM 25 th April 2013 at Aston University rdmf-special-event-funding-research-data-management Included a panel with representatives from BBSRC, EPSRC, NERC, MRC, STFC and the Wellcome Trust to answer 30 questions submitted by audience Blog reports: A conversation with the funders: Funding RDM: andrews.ac.uk/2013/05/01/funding-rdmhttps://research-computing.wp.st- andrews.ac.uk/2013/05/01/funding-rdm For which RDM activities will UK research funders pay? activities-will-uk-research-funders-pay activities-will-uk-research-funders-pay

What RDM cost can be included? Need to distinguish between the costs that are incurred during a project and those that arise afterwards. In-project (direct) costs: – covers hardware, staff, expenses, costs of preparing data & metadata, (long term archiving if POSF)… Post project (largely indirect) costs: – existing services should be used where possible – where an institution is going to provide a data repository, costs should be met through FEC – outsourcing to a third-party is also an option Owing to its charity status, the Wellcome Trust in general only pays directly incurred costs.

How should costs be included? In-project costs should be included in the direct costs for a project Post-project costs could be direct (e.g. charges levied by data centres) but typically fall into indirects as universities should provide infrastructure to support RDM The Justifications of Resources should, where possible, separate out the following RDM cost elements: – cost of collecting data – the cost of curating data – the cost of analysing data – the cost of preservation and sharing

Key messages Research data management is but one aspect of an institution’s research governance and should not be regarded as an optional addition or something peripheral to it. DMPs should make clear what is provided and what activities are being charged against a grant - funders do not expect to pay for something twice. There is no rule of thumb to be used to measure the proportion of a grant that may acceptably be spent on research data management. The cost of RDM is project-specific and entirely depends on the type of work. It may be possible to set up small research facilities to recover the cost of RDM (e.g. similar to provision of HPC), possibly as a cross-institutional service. However, clear added value needs to be shown to the funders and research community. A small research facility needs to be very close to the research. It is about creating highly specialised services.

Thanks – any questions? DCC guidance, tools and case studies: Follow us on and #ukdcc