Keep Calm and Fill in Your DMP: Lessons Learnt from a Swiss DMP-Template Initiative

Abstract

Aligning with other funders such as Horizon 2020, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) requires researcherswho apply for project funding to provide a Data Management Plan (DMP) as an integral part of their research proposal.In an attempt to assist and guide researchers filling out this document, and to provide a service as efficient as possible, the libraries of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and ETH Zurich took the lead to elaborate on a DMP template with content suggestions and recommendations. In this practice paper, we will describe the collaborative effort between the two Swiss federal institutes of technology, namely EPFL and ETH Zurich, as well as some partners of the national Data Life Cycle Management (DLCM) project, which resulted in a very helpful document as reported by our researchers.