Research infrastructures include different types of equipment, laboratories or, for example, large collections of data. In many disciplines, they play a key role in the conduct of research.
Research work and data management within a research infrastructure can be facilitated by the establishment of a Data Management Policy (DMPol) and a clear protocol of guidelines for good data management practices. This will make the data produced by the infrastructure better organised, more interoperable and easier to make openly available. The completed resource management policy can be easily used by the projects using the infrastructure to develop their own resource management plans.
It describes the main principles of data management: what kind of research data will be produced by the infrastructure, who will own and have access to it, how it will be stored, how it will be handled and what its life cycle will be. More detailed instructions can be given in a protocol, which describes step-by-step how the data is generated and how it is handled. Together, these documents facilitate the work of researchers by guiding them in a systematic way.
The key to a data management policy is to plan from the outset how to handle data in ways that best implement the FAIR principles. The rights to the data should be made as clear as possible, the data should be organised systematically and accompanied by adequate documentation on data use and lifecycle management. In addition, the materials should be described in the university's Converis system and, where possible, opened in a suitable repository.
A data management policy and protocol is recommended for all research infrastructures. For research infrastructures funded by , a data management policy (DMPol) in accordance with the Council's guidelines is a mandatory document.
