Academy of Finland data management plans

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

At the application stage

The Academy 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 Academy. 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

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.

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