The DMP (Data Management Plan) is a document that is initiated prior to the research work and evolves throughout the project.

It helps in the conception of a project by asking, from the outset, a certain number of questions about good data management practices throughout the lifecycle of the project.

Who will be responsible for data management?
What types of data will be created or collected? What methods will be used?
How will the data be organized?
How will the data be described? What volume will it occupy?
How and where will it be stored and backed up? Will it be secure?
Within what legislative context will it be accessible and reusable?
Under what conditions will it be shared?
Are they subject to the GDPR? Do they need to be anonymized?
Will human and financial resources be required to manage this data?

Thinking about these questions will make it possible to document the way in which the data will be produced or collected, described, processed, shared, protected and stored during and after the research project, for each set of data.

The researcher can be supported on a number of points by other parties – IT specialists, lawyers, DPO, IST, etc.

The drafting of the DMP may be voluntary and/or mandatory; for example, for a project funded by the ANR, it is the first deliverable due within 6 months. It is increasingly required by project funders and recommended by certain research organizations. Writing it is a key element in producing FAIR data.

Numerous models are available to facilitate its drafting, the choice being made according to the requirements of a funder or an institution, a research theme or one’s own wishes and needs.

It is possible to estimate the cost of data management in the short and long term (this aspect can be included in an application for ANR-type funding). Several tools can be used to measure these costs:

Data Management costing tool (University of Delft): this tool takes the form of a checklist listing the possible costs at different stages in the data life cycle (collection, cleaning, etc.).
It is based on the guide proposed by the UK Data Service
EPFL Library Cost Calculator for Data Management: this calculation tool takes into account infrastructure costs (storage server, electronic laboratory notebooks, databases, data warehouses, long-term archiving, etc.) over the entire duration of the project.