D6.4 DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN (EcoPlastiC project)
Creators: name: Nikodinovic-Runic, Jasmina
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: Executive Summary

This document is a deliverable of the EcoPlastiC project (D6.4 data Management Plan), financed under the

HORIZON EUROPE program (HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDEROPEN-01, GA no 101046758). In the

preparation of this first version of the DMP, provisions of GA and CA related to open science, principles of

responsible research data management, new approaches in open access to scientific publications and

other research outputs were used. In addition, this Plan included the recommended open science

practices, which are encouraged in the HORIZON EUROPE program, but respecting the specifics of this EIC

Pathfinder project and especially its innovative component.

The elaboration and updating of the Plan is covered by WP6, which is led by IMGGE, but it is important to

point out at the beginning that in the preparation of this version, and it will be the same approach for

every subsequent version, all consortium members actively participated, not only in providing individual

information in the tables and Annexes to the document, but also in the definition of procedures and

approaches for the responsible data management, which also affect the role of the EEB board.

The DMP is structured in full accordance with the recommended HORIZON EUROPE template, using all

relevant HE guides, recommendations of organisations and working groups established by the European

Commission for the purposes of RDM and OA, contained in the literature review at the end of the

document. For the implementation of the DMP in this collaborative and innovative EcoPlastiC project,

effective and sustainable procedures for continuous and responsible data management on the project

were recommended, so several annexes of this DMP are intended for the continuous input of data and

information throughout the project. Thus, this Plan is at the same time an implementation guide for RDM

(some annexes contain guides and auxiliary tools for EcoPlastiC researchers) and also an important

monitoring tool for EEB and consortium members. With such an approach in data management, it will be

easier to report on the realisation of the project in the part of data management, and to complete the

final version of the DMP (D6.5). The list of Annexes includes:

 Annex I – EcoPlastiC datasets (to be continuously updated, as separate document)

 Annex II – FAIR Checklist

 Annex III – Recommended and selected repositories and databases (to be updated

with list of EcoPlastiC selected trusted repositories and databases in the first project

year)

 Annex IV – Disciplinary metadata standards relevant for EcoPlastiC (to be updated

with list of EcoPlastiC selected trusted repositories and databases in the first project

year)

 Annex V – Proposed “readme” style of metadata

 Annex VI – Data availability statement examples

 Annex VII – EcoPlastiC scientific publications plan (to be continuously updated, as

separate document)

 Annex VIII – Responsible persons for EcoPlastiC data management (to be updated in

the first project year, and if necessary in case of change of nominated responsible

persons)5

The Plan defines in the Section 1 a summary overview of the data that will be collected and generated

during the project, their types, formats and approximate scope, as well as potential sources of secondary

data available in open repositories, databases, patent databases, etc. In the Section 2, the ways of applying

the FAIR principle are described in detail, procedurally and to the extent that it was possible at the very

beginning of the project. They will be updated according to the inputs in the first year of the project, and

according to the EEB decisions. Special attention is paid to the management of open access for other

research outputs, which are presented in Section 3, taking into account the innovative potential of the

project and the constrains resulting from it. This part is closely related to the Dissemination, Exploitation

and Communication Plan (D6.1), so this section will be updated in the next versions of the Plan. New open

science practices in HE, including this DMP, require significant resources for implementation in the

project, in terms of human, financial and material resources. In Section 4, an initial tabular overview of

the mentioned resources is given, and the ways of their mobilisation for effective and responsible RDM

are presented. Research data security and ethical principles are described in Section 5 and Section 6,

respectively. At the end of the Plan, an overview of valid national and institutional regulations related to

RDM for consortium members is given in Section 7.

Finally, it should be noted that this Plan is part of an overall project management strategy on the

EcoPlastiC project, which aims to regulate the management of all research outputs in the entire research

cycle, not only during the EcoPlastiC project, but also after its completion, in terms of defining potential

users of data and research outputs, their sharing, then which data can be destroyed and which should be

permanently stored, and how to ensure safe and long-term preservation of data and their wide visibility,

i.e. citation.