Funder Requirments

Find out what funders expect.

What does your funder require?

UKRI Funders (formerly RCUK)

• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): A Data Management Plan (DMP) is required, peer reviewers will be asked to assess whether the Data Management Plans are feasible, sensible, appropriate and valid based on their knowledge of their specialist area. The institution will be expected not to submit an application if it does not compy with AHRC requirements.

• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC): A data sharing plan is required, which may include details of: data areas, types and formats; standards and metadata; secondary use; methods for data sharing; and timeframes for release. Guidance is available under 'Data Sharing Areas' on p7 of the BBSRC Data Sharing Policy.

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC): The EPSRC does not require data management or sharing plans, but expects data to be preserved and shared - see the EPSRC data policy.    

• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): ESRC grant applicants who plan to generate data are responsible for preparing and submitting data management and sharing plans for their research projects as an integral part of the application.    

• Medical Research Council (MRC): A data management plan should be provided at the proposal stage, as per the MRC guidelines. A template is provided explaining what to include. This covers a description of the data, data collection, data management, data security, data sharing and responsibilities.    

• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC): A mandatory, single page, Outline Data Management Plan (ODMP) is required for all grant and fellowship applications, as per the NERC guidelines. Where appropriate, a full DMP will also be written in collaboration with the NERC Environmental Data Centres.    

• Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC): Data management plans are expected for projects that will result in the production or collection of scientific data. STFC guidelines recommends that eight areas should be addressed.

Other UK Funders

• Cancer Research UK (CRUK): CRUK asks researchers to submit a data sharing plan, covering various themes as outlined in its data sharing guidelines.    

• Wellcome Trust: An Output Management Plan (OMP)  should set out your approach for maximising the value of the following types of outputs: datasets generated by your research; original software created in the course of your research; new materials you create – like antibodies, cell lines and reagents; intellectual property (IP) such as patents, copyright, design rights and confidential know-how.

• British Heart Foundation:  As a Condition of Grant, all grant holders (with the exception of BHF Chairs, Infrastructure Grants, Strategic Initiatives and BHF Centres of Research Excellence or Centres of Regenerative Medicine) will need to submit outcome data to the British Heart Foundation using Researchfish, their research evaluation system. Safeguards should be in place to respect the confidentiality of patients, while also ensuring that medical researchers can gain access to patient data within a secure environment.

International Funders

• European Commission: This is a European Commission programme that finances and stimulates European research and innovation projects. Applicants and recipients of subsidies can find the Data Management Policy in the document Guidelines on Data Management in Horizon 2020.  

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) also provides information about funders' data plan requirements, and is the source for most of the funders' data management requirement summaries listed on this page.