Research Data Management (old April 2019): EPSRC Requirements

Researchers and research students are expected to be aware of RCUK data principles, and EPSRC expectations (published April 2011) and clarifications (published October 2014).

To satisfy EPSRC expectations, “Published research papers should include a short statement describing how and on what terms any supporting research data may be accessed.” 

This requirement “applies to all papers which acknowledge EPSRC funding with a publication date after 1^st May 2015” and is consistent with RCUK policy on Open Access. 

EPSRC also states: 

“We acknowledge that not all research papers are supported by research data, and will therefore rely on researchers making informed judgements about when it is appropriate to include such a statement.” 

“If compelling legal or ethical reasons exist to protect access to the data these should be noted in the statement included in the published research paper. A simple direction to interested parties to ‘contact the author’ would not normally be considered sufficient.”

We have some sample data access statements which you can use.

EPSRC states: "EPSRC‐funded research data should be made freely and openly available with as few restrictions as possible in a timely and responsible manner. [...] The expectation is that data relied on in published research findings will, by default, be available for scrutiny by others. [...] It is accepted that ethical or legal constraints may apply."

EPSRC qualifies this expectation (emphasis has been added to highlight categories):

• "Personal information should not be put into the public domain without the explicit consent of the person to which it relates."
• "Sensitive information should not be placed in the public domain. Sensitive information is information the release of which would compromise unprotected intellectual property or which, in the judgement of the security services, would result in unacceptable risk to the citizens of the UK or its allies."
• "A delay in the publication of research findings and access to supporting research data is acceptable if necessary to protect intellectual property that would otherwise be compromised."
• "'commercially confidential' data, in which a business organisation has a legitimate interest, might be made available to others subject to a suitable legally enforceable non‐disclosure agreement."
• "It is accepted that there may be cases in which it may not be possible or cost effective to preserve research data. This will depend on the type and scale of the data, their role in validating published results, and their predicted long term usefulness for further research. For example, in the case of simulated data or outputs of models, it may be more effective to preserve the means to recreate the data by preserving the generating code and environment, rather than preserving the data themselves. Provided that the ability to validate published research findings is not fundamentally compromised, a deliberate decision to dispose of research data at an appropriate time is acceptable in these cases."

EPSRC does not provide a repository and does not specify where data should be deposited. For information on where to deposit data, see the Sharing data page.

EPSRC states: "EPSRC does not require DMPs with research grant applications, but our research data principles include that '…project specific data management policies and plans ... ... should exist for all data'"

Many of EPSRC's expectations can be addressed during the creation of your DMP. The EPSRC does not specify a DMP template or format so you could use our to help you plan.

See also How to develop a data management and sharing plan published by the DCC (Digital Curation Centre) and their links to example DMPs for a variety of funders.

EPSRC states: "Publicly‐funded research data that is not generated in digital format will be stored in a manner to facilitate it being shared in the event of a valid request for access to the data being received (this expectation could be satisfied by implementing a policy to convert and store such data in digital format in a timely manner)"

This does not mean that all non-digital data must be digitised, but it is expected that non-digital data should be:

• discoverable e.g. via metadata and supporting documentation (see section 6 of this guidance for more information)
• available for consultation where possible. "EPSRC considers it reasonable that those requesting access to data be responsible for […] travelling to the place where the data is held if it is in physical form and it is impractical to digitise it."

The storage of physical data is a faculty responsibility. If the data is suitable for digitisation, you can contact the Library Digitisation Unit for guidance and advice.

EPSRC states: “[…] metadata must be sufficient to allow others to understand what research data exists, why, when and how it was generated, and how to access it. Where the research data referred to in the metadata is a digital object it is expected that the metadata will include use of a robust digital object identifier”. EPSRC expects that metadata will be published “normally within 12 months of the data being generated”.

At Southampton, we will use ePrints Soton as data catalogue for the institution. Metadata for a given dataset should be put into an ePrints Soton record even if the dataset is embargoed or the data can be deposited elsewhere.

We can mint DOIs where a digital object exists and is stored within the University. See our Indentifiers for Data page for more information.

EPSRC states: “Where access to the data is restricted the published metadata should also give the reason and summarise the conditions which must be satisfied for access to be granted. For example ‘commercially confidential’ data, in which a business organisation has a legitimate interest, might be made available to others subject to a suitable legally enforceable non‐disclosure agreement.”

Reason for restricting access should be included in metadata.

There are limited reasons for restricting access, for example:

• Commercial confidentiality or exploitation
• Sensitive
• ‘protected period’
• 3rd party interests

EPSRC states that research data should be: “securely preserved for a minimum of 10‐years from the date that any researcher ‘privileged access’ period expires or, if others have accessed the data, from last date on which access to the data was requested by a third party”

EPSRC also states: “all reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that publicly‐funded data is not held in any jurisdiction where the available legal safeguards provide lower levels of protection than are available in the UK.”

For digital data, this may rule out use of cloud services that store data on servers outside the UK.

EPSRC states: “Provided two simple rules are adhered to, all costs associated with research data management are eligible expenditure of research grant funds. The rules are:

1. no expenditure can be ‘double funded’ (a service that is centrally supported by the indirect costs paid on all research grants cannot then also be included as a direct cost on a grant)
2. all directly incurred expenditure of a grant must be incurred before the end date of the grant. RCUK has already clarified that all elements of research data management are eligible for research grant funding”

Costs for research data management can be included in a research proposal before it is submitted to EPSRC.

You can get guidance from:

• Research and Innovation Services
  • Guidance on documentation at proposal stage
• iSolutions Business Relationship Managers
  • active storage management
  • archival storage management
• Library Research Support and ePrints teams
  • Metadata
  • File formats