Research Data Management (RDM) Strategy

The RDM Strategy template is inspired by SNSF template for NCCR RDM Strategy, but departs from it as it is mostly targeted to single research groups, even if it can be used for a consortium of groups. Divided in 5 parts related to the research data lifecycle, this template is mostly useful in case a Research Group or Scientific Unit that wants to adopt common principles, practices and solutions for both data and code management. First off, feel free to adapt this template to your own situation and needs. The best approach is to make it as useful as possible, by citing for instance exact tools, links to resources, addresses to persons or services responsible for specific tasks. Each section is accompanied by a guiding text and examples as an inspiration to craft your own RDM Strategy: you can eliminate these guiding texts once you finish adapting the template to your needs. This is to be considered a live document, i.e. to be modified and improved as time passes and practices change, in order to always reflect your changes in strategic view or simply to reflect the updates to the mentioned practices and information. In case you have already a DMP or other specific documentation on data or code management for your projects, then this template becomes quite fast to compile: you might skip the parts labeled with an asterisk (*) if you already have the specific documentation, but make sure to indicate here their location or link. Contact the Research Data Library Team of EPFL at researchdata@epfl.ch for more information on the best ways to use this document, as well as Open Data practices, specific tools or platforms, policies on data and code, or to accompany your group in writing and later in implementing your RDM Strategy.