Know your funder requirements

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Expectations for Access to Data focus on digital outputs, including open source software.

Data Management Plan

AHRC require applicants to submit a data management plan. Full guidance on the requirements can be found in the Research funding guide on the AHRC webpages.

Long-term preservation

AHRC expect that research data produced by projects are retained for a minimum of three years from the end of project funding.

Research data sets should be made available in an accessible and appropriate repository for at least three years after the end of the grant.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) expects any research data created as part of a funded project to be made available with as few restrictions as possible in a timely manner.

Data Management Plan

The BBSRC requires submission of a research data management plan as part of grant applications. This plan should not exceed one page and should provide details on topics suggested in the BBSRC's data sharing policy.

Long term Preservation

The BBSRC expect research data to be shared at the time of publication of main findings, and no later than three years after its generation.

Primary research data should be retained for 10 years after the completion of a project. Researchers should ensure that a local copy of the data is held in addition to copies that are submitted to third party repositories. The UWE Bristol Research Data Repository can help with this requirement.

Additional Information

• BBSRC data sharing policy FAQ
• BBSRC Safeguarding good scientific practice
• BBSRC Safeguarding good scientific practice statement

Data management plan

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) do not require a research data management plan to be submitted as part of the grant application. However, EPSRC's principle five expects project-specific data management plans to be in place.

Long-term preservation

The EPSRC expect that metadata relating to research data are published and freely available within 12 months of the data being generated. Metadata should include details of what the data are, where they are held and how to access them. If the research data is not freely available, the metadata must give the reason for this, and give the conditions under which the data can be accessed.

The EPSRC minimum retention period for research data is 10 years from the expiry of any privileged access period, or from when access was requested by a third party.

UWE Bristol-specific guidance

The UWE Data Repository is available for EPSRC grant holders to deposit the research data that supports EPSRC funded publications. Please contact the Library's Open Research Service at open.research@uwe.ac.uk if you would like to use this service.

Authors are required to provide a data access statement within their EPSRC funded publications.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) have seven principles which underpin its research data management policy.

Data management plan

ESRC applicants must submit a research data management and sharing plan as part of the grant application process. The ESRC suggest an outline plan within their research data policy.

If you've not written a data management plan before, it may be useful to look at a good example. The University of Leeds has shared two examples of ESRC data plans.

Long-term preservation

Any research data created or repurposed during an ESRC-funded project must be offered to the UK Data Service or another suitable data repository. If the data is not deposited to the UK Data Service, the researcher would need to create a metadata record in UK Data Service ReShare and submit metadata relating to the grant and data collection through this service.

Where research data are confidential or contain sensitive personal data, ESRC grant holders must seek to secure appropriate informed consent for data sharing or alternatively anonymise the research data in order to make sharing possible.

ESRC-funded postgraduates

The research data policy is not compulsory for postgraduate research students. However, ESRC does encourage ESRC-funded students to offer copies of any machine-readable data created or repurposed during the lifetime of the award for deposit in the UK Data Service. The ESRC postgraduate funding guide provides further information.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) encourages data sharing and provides guidance on data management and sharing. 

Data management plan

The MRC requires all researchers to submit a research data management plan at the grant application stage, as per the MRC guidelines. A template is provided explaining what to include. This covers a description of the data, data collection or generation, data management, data security, data sharing and responsibilities.

Long-term preservation

The MRC expects research data to be shared in a timely fashion with as few restrictions as possible to maximise its value for public benefit and to support open science. Ethical, legal, and institutional policies must be followed, and there may be specific, limited restrictions on data sharing to allow for a period of exclusive use by the primary research team.

A key part of this approach is a long-term preservation plan. For basic research, data must be retained for at least 10 years after a project ends, while population health and clinical studies require a minimum retention period of at least 20 years.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) data policy applies to environmental research data but excludes information products; for example, model code.

Data management plan

All applications for NERC funding must include an outline research data management plan. This should include details of the estimated quantity of research data expected to be created.

A full research data management plan should be developed in collaboration with the NERC data centres within three to six months of the grant start date.

Long-term preservation

All environmental research data of long term value, generated through NERC-funded research, must be submitted to NERC data centres for preservation.

There is usually a two year exclusive use period from the end of research data collection. NERC define the start of the exclusive use period as being from when research data is available to be used, not from the end of a funding period.

NERC have a useful data value checklist, to help establish the long term value of data.

The Science and Technology (STFC) data policy defines research data as:

• raw - scientific data arising as a result of experiment, measurement or observation.
• derived - data that have been subject to some form of standard or automated data reduction procedure.
• published - data that underpins a publication and from which scientific conclusions have been derived.

Data management plan

A data management plan is typically required at the proposal stage, explaining how the STFC requirement will be met. A specific format is not required but STFC encourage applicants to use the guidance provided by the Digital Curation Centre. Plans should not exceed two pages.

STFC will consider costs associated with the research data management plan as part of the grant review process but expect applicants to make the most of existing skills where possible.

Long-term preservation

STFC expects research data which are referred to in a publication to be made publicly available to anyone within six months of the date of publication, unless there are ethical, privacy, or security reasons which prevent this. Other research data should be made available where it is appropriate and cost-effective to do so.

Original research data from which new data could be derived should be retained for a minimum of ten years from the end of a project. Data that cannot be re-measured should be retained indefinitely. Research data should be retained in an established repository.