Wellcome Trust requirements

What does the Wellcome Trust expect?

Further sources of help

• DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN REQUIRED AT APPLICATION? Yes – as part of an ‘Output Management Plan’. This covers not only data but also software, materials and resources. Researchers are required to submit a plan for management and sharing when they will generate outputs that will hold significant value in terms of health benefits or as a resource for the wider research community. In other words, where the data or other outputs hold clear re-use potential beyond the original research for which they were collected. Plans should address: approaches to management, access and citation procedures, intellectual property issues, resource requirements and output sharing or commercialisation options. This is where exceptions to preservation or sharing may also be outlined. Further details and guidance is given in Developing an Outputs Management Plan.
• HELP WITH COSTS? Yes, researchers may include costs associated with data management and sharing for the lifetime of the award. Support beyond that may be considered for very high value outputs.
• DATA DEPOSIT AND TIMESCALES: The Trust expects most data and other outputs to be shared and accessible from the time of publication unless there are specific reasons not to do so, e.g. to protect the privacy of the subjects. Where suitable repositories exist, data should also be deposited at the time of publication.
• ACCESS AND DATA SHARING: Researchers should make relevant data, like other outputs, available to others on publication of their research, however opportunities for timely and responsible pre-publication sharing of data should also be maximised.

• Wellcome Trust guidance on output management and when a plan is required
• Policy on data, software and materials  management and sharing
• Excellent Q&A on complying with the Wellcome Trust’s data policy
• Wellcome Trust pages on data sharing
• Data Management Planning: Wellcome Trust Funding Applicants – a guide prepared by the University of Bristol Research Data Service (PDF)