Funding application

When you write your application for research funding is when you should start planning for how to manage data during the project. A part of the project description will be how you plan to collect, store, and analyse data. You need to make sure that the data management you describe adheres to applicable Swedish legislation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation. (You can read more about this in the Research material with personal data section.)

The data management plan you write as part of the funding application is a first draft and will only contain information that is relevant at that point. When the project is granted funding, the plan can develop into a full data management plan (DMP). The SND DMP checklist contains instructions for how to write a complete data management plan. You can also consult with your local data support unit to see if there are specific DMP resources in your HEI.

For many international research funders, a data management plan is mandatory as part of the application process. Swedish funders are beginning to require data management plans, too; either a short tentative DMP as part of the application, or a more thorough plan from the projects that are granted funding. It is likely that more Swedish funders will require this, so if you are considering to apply for research grants from a funder who demands a DMP, you should look closer into which specific requirements that funder has.

Funding

Data management is resource-intensive, so the project budget should include the necessary data management-related activities. Define the research needs, and think about which other costs may be associated with the project. Consider the following:

• Do you need to set aside resources to pay for a specific storage solution in order to guarantee that the research data are securely stored?
• Does a project member need to spend time on sending and receiving questionnaires?
• Will you have material that needs to be transcribed or digitised?
• Do you need to procure special equipment or new software for the project?
• Do you need to hire people with special skills, apart from the project group members?

If you write a first version of your data management plan in the application, it may help to give you an overview of the data-related costs that may occur in the project.