ESRC requirements

What does the ESRC expect?

Further sources of help

• DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN REQUIRED AT APPLICATION? All grant applicants planning to generate data are required to submit a data management and sharing plan. The plan should be a maximum of three pages of A4.
• HELP WITH COSTS? Yes: costs of data management and data preparation for sharing should be included in the grant proposal.
  However, as the ESRC funds long-term data preservation via the UK Data Service, separate preservation costs will generally not be covered.
• WHEN AND WHERE TO DEPOSIT DATA: All data created or repurposed during the lifetime of the grant must be deposited with a responsible data repository within three months of the end of the grant.
  • This may be the UK Data Service (the ESRC data service provider), or another appropriate repository such as an institutional one.
  • If the latter option is taken, the UK Data Service should be informed of the published location.
• ACCESS AND DATA SHARING: Research data arising from ESRC-funded should be made available for reuse by other researchers. In exceptional cases where data sharing is deemed impossible, a strong argument must be presented to justify this.
  • Researchers depositing with the UK Data Service will be asked to specify conditions of access, including the degree of confidentiality to be observed in making the data available to others. The UK Data Service offers secure access facilities for sensitive data.
  • Any legal, ethical or commercial constraints should be considered in detail before commencing research, with the aim of maximising data sharing.

• ESRC Research Data Policy
• ESRC Research Data Policy FAQs
• ESRC Research Funding Guide
• ESRC Research Ethics Guidance: Data Requirements
• UKRI guidance on how to Submit datasets if you have funding from ESRC
• UKRI Guidance on Best Practice in the Management of Research Data
• UK Data Service: Deposit Data
• UK Data Service SecureLab – enables controlled access to data deemed too sensitive or confidential to be made openly available
• UK Data Service guidance on ESRC Data Management Plan and Policy
• Data Management Planning: ESRC Funding Applicants – a guide prepared by the University of Bristol Research Data Service (PDF)
• An ESRC data management plan template is available via DMPonline