Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

General Info

Name of policy

Policy Framework on Research Data. The Framework is a combination of a set of Principles (https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/standards/researchdata/principles/) and a set of Expectations (https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/standards/researchdata/expectations/).

Additional guidance

EPSRC is so far the RCUK council which most explicitly places reponsibility for resposnible data management with the institution, as opposed to the investogator.

The EPSRC has an additional document clarifying its expectations: https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/files/aboutus/standards/clarificationsofexpectationsresearchdatamanagement/

Contact

Louise Tillman, Louise.Tillman@epsrc.ac.uk

Policy Specifics

Data Plan

The EPSRC does not require data management plans to be submitted alongside funding applications, but has said that it expects plans to be created and maintained by grant holders.

Data Sharing / Access

Principle 3: “Sharing research data is an important contributor to the impact of publicly funded research. To recognise the intellectual contributions of researchers who generate, preserve and share key research datasets, all users of research data should acknowledge the sources of their data and abide by the terms and conditions under which they are accessed.”

Expectation 2: “Published research papers should include a short statement describing how and on what terms any supporting research data may be accessed.”

Time Limits for Deposit and Retention

“Research organisations will ensure that EPSRC‐funded research data is 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.”

Data Centre / Data Archive

Decisions about where to deposit data are left to the grant holder, with the proviso that a persistent identifier is attached to ensure continuity of linkage between publications and the underpinning data.

Costs

“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.”

Monitoring

The EPSRC does not state how compliance with its policy framework will be monitored.

Related Policies

In common with the other RCUK councils, the EPSRC policy on data is intended to be read and interpreted in conjunction with the RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy (http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/datapolicy/) and the Concordat on Open Research Data (http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/documents/concordatonopenresearchdata-pdf/) The EPSRC also has an Open Access policy (https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/about/access/roaccess/) in line with RCUK. Publications should be made available as rapidly and effectively as possible via deposit in an appropriate repository at or around the time of publication. This is a requirement for the Research Excellence Framework (REF).