Research Council of Finland funding calls and DMPs

This site contains information about the process around data management plan for the Research Council of Finland, as well as guidance for applicants and grantees.

At the application stage

The Research Council requires that projects funded by it commit to open access to scientific publications prepared from their research results and to the opening of research data produced in the project. However, for justified reasons, data may have different degrees of transparency and limited access, from completely open to completely restricted. In all cases, the metadata of publications and data shall be made publicly available. If the data cannot be made publicly available for a justified reason such as data privacy or IPR, it suffices to publish their metadata. See the steps to publishing metadata in the University's JYX publication archive (requires login with JYU credentials).

In the Research plan section of the application, in section 4.3. "Open science", the applicant draws up a very short  description of planned procedures for data management that proves adherence to the open access requirements of the Research Council. The description should include the following: 

1) Where you store the materials you collect and produce during the project:

  • Key is to use safe systems from stable service providers (such as universities, CSC etc.)
  • Model clause: "Data will be stored in a secure cloud service provided and backed-up by JYU Digital Services."

2) How do you take care of legal and ethical issues related to data and its distribution, such as ownership, intellectual property rights, and privacy of subjects:

  • Key is to make written agreements and to anticipate potential difficulties.
  • Model clause: "University of JYU will own the data and all agreements will be done before commencing the research."
  • Potential GDPR issues must go case by case basis, no model clause fits all.

3) Where the data or their publishable parts will be available at the end of the project:

  • Emphasis on selecting a proper venue to publish data: a discipline-specific repository or JYU's JYX repository are recommended
  • If the project does not collect or produce any data that are suitable for further use in whole or in part, give a brief justification as to why the data cannot be opened for further use (e.g., data privacy, IPR). 

When you describe data management practices and solutions in your AoF application, detailed information on solutions is of secondary importance. At the application phase, most important is to convey a message that you understand importance of open data (when possible) and FAIR principles (always). These mean that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and (Re)usable. This requires special care throughout the research process to ensure that data is collected and arranged systematically, they are documented properly, metadata are up-to-date, and all is published using channels that ensure F and A.

See the Academy guidelines (see "1. In the application phase").

For comments and feedback about the section 4.3 "Open Science" in your application, please send it to the Open Science Centre: researchsupport-osc@jyu.fi.

After a positive funding decision

JYU's Research and Innovation Services will contact the beneficiaries as soon as the Academy publishes the information. At this stage, the researcher has eight weeks to submit the actual data management (plan, DMP) to the Academy's SARA system. The Open Information Center organizes workshops and advises on the preparation and finalization of the plan. Once the DMP has been reviewed and commented on by the Open Data Center, the researcher submits it to SARA. The plant manager then approves the plan for SARA's online transactions, in which case the applicant's approval is confirmed.

Consortium projects

There is no need for a separate, dedicated DMP for each organization in the consortium, but one common plan will suffice. If JYU acts as the project coordinator, in good time before the return date, make sure that your partner's representatives have time to review and comment on their points in the DMP. If JYU acts as a project partner, please ask the plan to comment on the Open Science Centre well in advance of the return date.

Tools and instructions for creating a data management plan

Academy of Finland DMP template and guidelines (see "2. After a positive funding decision")
JYU's organizational instructions and model clauses (.pdf)
Checklist for DMP assessment (Tuuli Working Group 2021) (downloadable version)

Schedule and DMP  support, Spring 2023

The AoF decision dates will appear on this site during the Spring, 2023. The Open Science Centre will contact the beneficiaries personally via email on the decision day to offer support in drafting the required DMP.

DMP checklist for PIs in Research Council of Finland funded projects

1. The Research Council of Finland requires that the project PI submits the ready DMP in the Council's electronic system SARA no later than eight (8) weeks from the funding decision date. Submittal is a prerequisite for receiving the funding. However, the DMP must always be checked and approved by the Open Science Centre (OSC) DMP support experts before the PI makes the submittal. The OSC experts offer help and guidance in drafting and finalizing the final version.

2. Use the RcF/JYU template for drafting the DMP. DMPTuuli works as well, but NB: DMPTuuli does not contain JYU-specific institutional DMP instructions, since JYU is not a partner in the DMPTuuli consortium! The JYU DMP Guidelines can be found here.

3. Consortium projects where JYU is the consortium leader: 

- the JYU PI is responsible for drafting the DMP in collaboration with the Open Science Centre DMP support experts. 

- After that, the PI shares the draft with consortium partners who in their turn have the draft checked and approved by the respective DMP support experts of each organization. 

- After the checking round in organizations, the JYU PI can submit the DMP to the Council's electronic system SARA. 

- Only one DMP is created for the whole consortium. 

- Check the criteria for the need to establish joint controllership between the partner organizations. 

4. Consortium projects where JYU is a partner: 

- the PI requests the DMP draft from with the leading organization’s PI and sends it to the OSC DMP support experts for checking and approval. 

- Preferably spare 60 to 90 minutes for a guidance session with the experts. Only one DMP is created for the whole consortium. 

5. Human research under the GDPR in research including direct interaction (survey, interview, observation, sampling, measuring, etc.) with the study participants: 

- Check whether the research needs an ethical review from either the Ethics Committee of JYU or the Hospital District of Central Finland. 

- In consortium projects, the review is only done once and takes place in the consortium PI’s organizational committee. 

- JYU acts as the controller for personal data handled in the project. 

- After the start of the project, the Data Privacy Notice and other information documents that are needed for contacting the study participants should be drafted no later than approx. 4 to 3 weeks before first contacting the participants. The information documents must be in place before the contact. It is recommended that the PI shares the final Data Privacy Notice draft with the OSC DMP experts for checking and comments before starting the project.

- In projects where the JYU acts as the controller, the PI submits an archival copy of the ready Data Privacy Notice to the Archival Services of the University of Jyväskylä: kirjaamo@jyu.fi.

Any questions? Please contact us at researchsupport-osc@jyu.fi!