#  Executive summary

This document is the first version of the PROSEU Data Management Plan (DMP).
The PROSEU project participates in the Open Research Data (ORD) Pilot,
launched by the European Commission (EC), which aims at promoting free access,
reuse, repurpose, and redistribution of data generated by Horizon 2020
projects. Therefore, the purpose of this DMP is to provide a first description
of the main elements of the data management policy that will be used by the
Consortium with regard to the research data generated and collected during the
project (excluding deliverables for the EC and other dissemination materials).
Specifically, it includes detailed information about:

  * The main research data that the project will collect and generate; 

  

  * How it will be processed, organised, made accessible for verification and reuse; 

  

  * How it will be curated and preserved during and after the end of the project according to the corresponding ethical requirements (detailed on D9.1 and D9.2). 

  

To ensure that all research data produced is managed and shared properly,
according to ethical and technical standards, and to facilitate their reuse by
others in an effective, efficient and transparent way, PROSEU team members
will adopt a series of criteria to follow the FAIR data principles. Overall,
all research data that are final versions will be shared using licences that
permit the widest reuse possible (e.g. Creative Commons licences). Exceptions
are those datasets containing personal data, not-final versions of working
documents, datasets in which PROSEU members are not primary authors, or when a
contractual obligation exists between two parts. These documents will remain
closed and not be openly distributed, nor shared with third parties.

Since the DMP is a _living document_ , the information provided in this first
version describes the plan for managing all research data during the first 15
months of the project (until May 2019). According to the Grant Agreement, the
DMP will be periodically updated to include any significant change arisen
during the development of the project (i.e. following updates will be
delivered on 06/2019 and 05/2020).

The document is structured as follows: Section 1 introduces the Consortium’s
commitment towards Open Data and Open Access initiatives to contribute to Open
Science principles. Section 2 describes the features of the research data
expected to be generated and collected in the project. Section 3 is dedicated
to the principles of FAIR data, that is, how data will be findable,
accessible, interoperable, and reused. Section 4 details the costs and
responsibilities associated with making data FAIR. Next, Section 5 addresses
data security issues. Section 6 will describe the ethical and legal aspects
involving the research data collected. Finally, the appendices include the
description and characteristics of the main datasets that are expected for the
period covered by this DMP.

#  Introduction

The PROSEU project participates in the _Open Research Data (ORD) Pilot_ ,
which aims to make the research data generated by Horizon 2020 projects
findable and accessible for others, in order to maximise their reuse with as
few restrictions as possible, while protecting personal and sensitive data, as
well as intellectual property rights (following the premise “ _as open as
possible, as closed as necessary_ ”). Our ambition and responsibility as
researchers is to ensure that all research data produced is managed and shared
properly, according to ethical and technical standards, and to facilitate
their reuse by others in an effective, efficient and transparent way,
following open science practices. In this way, by opening up the research
data, new knowledge may be easily discovered and scrutinised by a largest
community of researchers and stakeholders, such as policy-makers or non-
governmental organisations, among other societal actors.

Therefore, the objective of the PROSEU Data Management Plan (DMP) is to
provide detailed information concerning the datasets that will be collected
and generated during the project, and how these research data will be shared,
archived and preserved during the lifespan of the project, as well as after
its conclusion. Specifically, PROSEU will collect data through several
procedures, based on transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research methods
and approaches, such as: self-administered questionnaire (web-based); semi-
structured interviews; focus groups; living labs; and quantitative modelling
and scenario analysis, in nine EU countries (Belgium, Croatia, France,
Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom).
Since the project’s impacts are dependent on an easy discovery, access and
reusability of the research data, these will be available during and after the
end of the project. Thus, the DMP describes which data can be shared,
including access procedures, storage and long-time preservation. Where
exceptions are necessary due to data protection issues and to confidentiality,
since some data cannot be anonymized and participants are entitled to
confidentiality, the DMP states clearly which data will not be shared. In this
regard, ethicalrelated aspects of data protection and research procedures have
already been considered in this DMP and are described in more detailed in the
PROSEU Ethics Requirements documents (i.e. Deliverables

9.1 and 9.2).

This first version of the DMP includes the research datasets that PROSEU
Consortium members expect to collect and generate during the first 15 months
of the project (until May 2019). This DMP excludes the deliverables for the EC
and other dissemination materials, which will be made publicly available
through the EC website and the PROSEU project website. In line with the Grant
Agreement, the DMP will be updated in deliverable D1.3 (month 16), and
deliverable D1.5 (month 27), which is the final version. The document follows
the guidelines on FAIR Data Management for Horizon 2020 projects and is
organised in six sections that cover the description of the data (Section 2),
the FAIR principles for opening research data (Section 3), resources needed
for making data FAIR (Section 4), data security (Section 5), and ethical
aspects (Section 6). A detailed description and characteristics of all
datasets expected for the period covered by this DMP can be found as an
appendix to this report.

#  Data summary

The results obtained within the PROSEU project will rely on efficient data
collection from _Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Prosumer Initiatives_ and
relevant stakeholders involved in _prosumerism_ , who will be requested to
provide information about the economic, financial, legal, technological and
cultural factors that drive or hinder the development and consolidation of RES
_prosumerism_ in Europe. Specifically, factors that facilitate or impede
collective energy-responsible behaviour and choices, including data on how
prosumer initiatives deal with issues of participation, inclusiveness, gender,
and transparency. This will allow us to determine what incentive structures
will enable the mainstreaming of RE _prosumerism_ and, in so doing,
safeguarding citizen participation, inclusiveness and transparency in the
Energy Union.

Specifically, PROSEU researchers will collect both quantitative and
qualitative data that will be used to: describe the traits of collective RES
prosumer initiatives (WP2); analyse European and national-level policies,
regulations and governance frameworks (WP3); study and experiment with finance
and business models (WP4); model technological solutions for _prosumers_
(WP5), understand what are the incentive structures (WP6) and key
recommendations and lessons learnt (WP7) for mainstreaming RES _prosumerism_
and the participation of citizens in the Energy Union. To accomplish this, the
PROSEU team members will examine the phenomenon of _prosumerism_ in, at least,
nine EU Member States (Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal,
Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom), by collecting data via a self-
administered questionnaire (web-based) (WP2); interviews with experts and
focus groups (WP3 and WP4); technological databases (WP5); workshops (WP6);
and, finally, through direct input from RES Prosumer collectives and other
stakeholders (in the form of interviews or workshops, depending on the
interventions conducted in the multiple Living Labs that will take place
across Europe), but also drawing on previous research from other WPs (WP7).

Firstly, the project’s WP2, WP3, WP4 and WP5 will start with a baseline review
of existing scientific studies, including research outcomes, guidelines
related to regulatory, social, economic, political and technological aspects
of RES prosumer initiatives (considered as ‘secondary data’, since it is based
on an evaluation of primary sources). This implies that any research data from
previous EU projects that can inform and contextualise the work of these work
packages will be reused and thus referred back to published results.

Taken together, these data will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the
sociotechnical dimensions of RES _prosumerism,_ and concretely:

  * To map and characterise RES prosumer initiatives in Europe, and to develop a typology that accounts for their full diversity, achievements and ambitions including sociocultural and socio-economic factors (Objective 1); 

  

  * To examine the current regulatory frameworks and policy instruments relevant for RES prosumer initiatives across the EU to produce updated Member State factsheets and policy briefs on challenges, opportunities, incentives of regulations and policies for prosumers in nine EU member states (Objective 2); 

  

  * To identify innovative business and financial models for RE prosumers (Objective 3); 

  

  * To develop local, national and EU technology scenarios for 2030 and 2050, and technology recommendations for RES prosumers under different geographical, climatic, and sociopolitical conditions (Objective 4); 

  

  * To propose a set of incentive structures and a roadmap for the mainstreaming of prosumers in the Energy Union (Objective 5); 

  

  * To develop new methodological tools (based on the co-creation and co-learning methods used in the living labs) to facilitate the mainstreaming of _prosumerism_ (Objectives 6 and 7); 

  

  * To create a Prosumers Community of Interest by bringing together relevant stakeholders (Objective 8). 

  

Table 1 and table 2 (Appendix 1 and Appendix 2) provide a description of the
datasets that PROSEU partners expect to collect and generate during the first
15 months of the project (until May 2019), which are directly linked with the
above PROSEU’s objectives. These tables may suffer modifications by the
addition, removal or rename of the dataset included, and will be updated in
the following versions of this DMP.

PROSEU Consortium members expect that the research data and outcomes generated
through the project (e.g. deliverables, policy briefs, guidelines, etc.) will
be useful for other researchers from different fields - not only in the social
sciences and humanities, but also in the STEM (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics) sciences -, as well as for current and future RES
prosumer initiatives, and their potential allies such the alternative finance
sector, utility and grid operators, and representatives from governments at
the local, regional, national and EU level. Thus, to facilitate the widespread
reuse of the research data, and in this manner enable the reproducibility of
results, PROSEU datasets will use widely accepted formats and standards. These
datasets will be provided in text (plain text and/or comma delimited) and/or
in numeric formats. PROSEU will use the most common file extensions to save
the data, such as .pdf, docx, or .csv. Moreover, most of the data will be
produced and made available in English.

#  FAIR Data

Projects within the EU Horizon 2020 are encouraged to provide open access
to/and to reuse digital research data, following the FAIR data principles;
that is, all research data should be **Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and
Reusable (FAIR)** . The PROSEU project, as participant in the ORD pilot, will
follow the FAIR principles by establishing a series of criteria to make data
findable by other users (e.g. using metadata standards, adding keywords, and
DOIs, etc.); to address which data may be accessible via open repository or
keep confidential according to ethical requirements; to foster the
interoperability of the data by allowing data exchange and reuse (e.g. using
standards, or open source); and, to establish the licences of the data
generated to permit the widest reuse possible.

##  Making data findable, including provisions for metadata

Improving the ability of other researchers, policy makers, and stakeholders to
find and reuse the

PROSEU research data is vital to increase the impact of the project. To do so,
metadata will accompany the datasets that will be made available in public
repositories in order to improve their discoverability and increase their
usability. Thus, PROSEU will follow the **metadata standards** provided by the
Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), in particular the DDI Codebook v. 2.5,
which is a widely used international standard for describing data from the
social, behaviour, and economic sciences (DDI Alliance, 2014). The use of
these standards is recommended to make different data sources comparable and
interoperable, and to increase data sharing and reuse (OpenAIRE2020, 2017). In
particular, PROSEU’s metadata will provide a full description of each dataset,
including, at least, the following information: dataset reference (file name),
a description of the content, authors (i.e. PROSEU partner/s that
collected/processed the data), file version number, publication date, Digital
Object Identifier (DOI), licence information, and any technical specification
that will be needed to visualise or access the data. Table 3 (Appendix 3)
shows an example of the metadata associated with a specific dataset available
in public repositories. Furthermore, all PROSEU documents will incorporate
basic information and visual elements associated with the project, such as the
PROSEU logo, the EU logo, or the GA number, among others, to make them
identifiable.

PROSEU will use unique **Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)** for all files
uploaded to public repositories. DOIs to these files will be cited in any
published article that uses PROSEU research data to facilitate their
discoverability and reuse.

Additionally, **file-naming conventions** will be adopted to organise and make
the project’s research data easy to identify and use by the Consortium
partners and by others. Consequently, PROSEU’s file names will reflect the
contents of the file and include enough information to uniquely identify the
data file. According to extended practices to standardise file names, PROSEU
will comply with the following general specifications for file naming:

  * File names should be short but descriptive (<40 characters); 

  

  * Use alphanumeric and avoid special characters, such as "/ \ : * < > [ ] $ & ~ ! # ? { } ' ^ % 

  

  * Use underscores _ instead of periods or spaces; 

  

  * Standardise dates (according to ISO standards: YYYYMMDD); 

  

  * Use leading zeros for sequential numbering, e.g. v01. 

  

Moreover, PROSEU file names should contain the following information:

  * Project acronym (i.e. PROSEU) – compulsory for deliverables and data openly shared; 

  

  * Document name - content (e.g. Data Management Plan) – compulsory for all documents; 

  

  * Researcher/Authors initials – compulsory only for internal documents; 

  

  * Acronym institution leading the research shared – recommended for openly shared data; 

  

  * Year of study (e.g. 2018) – when necessary; 

  

  * File version (e.g. v01) – compulsory for internal documents; 

  

  * File type/extension (e.g. .odt) - compulsory for all documents. 

  

Examples:

  * For EC deliverables and dissemination materials: PROSEU_DataManagementPlan.odt; 

  

  * For public research data (final docs, openly shared): PROSEU_DataManagementPlan_FCID_v01.odt; 

  

  * For internal/working documents: 20180518_DataManagementPlan_EM_v01.odt. 

  

Finally, to optimise possibilities for discoverability and reuse of PROSEU
research data, all datasets and files stored and openly shared on repositories
such as ZENODO will include **keywords** to describe the content of each file.
Some potential keywords to be used are shown in Table 4 (Appendix 4).

##  Making data openly accessible

In the context of the EC’s ORD Pilot, the research outcomes (i.e. journal
articles, policy briefs, reports, etc.) are published by default in Open
Access. Furthermore, public research data generated will be made openly
accessible via the **online repository _ZENODO_ ** ,  as soon as the research
is published. ZENODO is a free of charge repository developed by CERN within
the EU OpenAIRE project to support Open Data management for EC funded multi-
disciplinary research. Data contained in ZENODO is stored in the CERN Data
Centres, primarily in Geneva, but with multiple replicas in a distributed file
system (“About ZENODO”, n.d.). Since identification is not needed to download
open materials on this repository, the identity of people (other researchers
or stakeholders) accessing the data through ZENODO cannot be ascertained.
However, ZENODO allows control of the access right of the data uploaded (i.e.
open, closed, restricted or embargoed information); allows the upload of
different types of data (i.e. publication, image, dataset, presentation,
software, poster, or videos, among others); and allows adding specific
keywords to facilitate the access to information.

It is not expected that any highly specialised software tool would be needed
to access the PROSEU public research data shared on ZENODO. As previously
described in Table 2, most of the datasets produced within the project will be
available in **common text or numeric format files** (e.g. DOCX, ODT, PDF, or
CSV). When possible, **open source code** and/or **open source software**
(e.g. LibreOffice) will be used.

Although our ambition is to widely distribute PROSEU research data as open as
possible, **certain datasets cannot be shared or need to be shared under
restrictions** . For instance, datasets containing personal data of
participants (such as names or e-mail addresses, which cannot be anonymized),
not-final versions of working documents, datasets in which PROSEU members are
not primary authors, or when a contractual obligation exists between two
parts, will remain stored in the project’ servers and will not be openly
distributed, nor shared with third parties. Table 5 (Appendix 5) details
PROSEU members’ expectations regarding the availability of the project’s
datasets stored in the open repository ZENODO, as well as the expected access
right to the data.

##  Making data interoperable

Interoperability of the data (i.e. allowing data exchange and re-use of the
research data between researchers, institutions, organisations or countries)
will be facilitated by following good practices and standards for research
data. This includes, as previously stated, the tag of PROSEU files with
appropriate metadata, based on the standards provided by the DDI Alliance for
social sciences; using self-explaining file names, following international
file naming conventions; the addition of keywords and DOIs; and the
utilization of common file types and formats (e.g. PDF or CSV), as well as
open source software (e.g. LibreOffice) whenever possible. Moreover, PROSEU
will utilise the DDI standards for controlled vocabularies for social science
research (DDI Alliance, 2017), which described specific terms and rules for
their use, in relation to, for instance, data source types, mode of
collection, or general data formats, among others. The use of all of these
standards will facilitate the understanding, sharing, and reuse of our
datasets.

##  Increase data reuse (through clarifying licences)

Research data generated by the project will be made publicly available for
reuse according to the type of data and journal embargo policies. In most of
the cases, data will be distributed as soon as research is published online.
Therefore, the reuse of PROSEU research data by third parties (i.e. other
researchers, policy-makers, other societal actors) is expected during the
project’s activities (e.g.

through periodic PROSEU deliverables), but most importantly, after the end of
the project.

As previously mentioned, certain datasets cannot be shared or need to be
shared under restrictions. Thus, datasets containing personal data of
participants (such as names or e-mail addresses, which cannot be anonymized),
not-final versions of working documents, datasets in which PROSEU members are
not primary authors, or when a contractual obligation exists between two
parts, will remain stored in the project’ servers and neither be openly
distributed, or shared with third parties.

Whenever possible, public research data will be licenced in a way that permits
the widest reuse possible, for instance, Creative Commons (CC) Attribution
(BY) version 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Table 6 (Appendix 6) shows some of the datasets
and type of licences that PROSEU expects to make publicly available.

#  Allocation of resources

The **expected costs** for making PROSEU research data findable, openly
accessible, interoperable, and reusable (i.e. FAIR), while securing any
personal data collected, are detailed in Table 7 (Appendix 7). These costs
will be covered by the financial budget of the project, and include Open
Access (OA) publications, ICT services such as secure servers and Internet
domains, and the development of code for a self-administered questionnaire
(web-based). Any other cost that may relate to data preservation and/or data
security will be discussed among Consortium members.

Once PROSEU data management is fully established, each partner will be
responsible for following the ethical and technical requirements described in
this DMP to keep research data within the FAIR principles. Additionally, the
PROSEU project’s coordinator will be responsible for data management
decisions, for instance, resolving what data will be kept, for how long, and
how and where data will be shared and preserved.

#  Data security

Data security is of major importance in the PROSEU project. Although PROSEU
will not deal with any sensitive data, **personal data of participants** will
be collected and stored during the development of the project, being destroyed
after the completion of the research. The protection of personal data will be
ensured through appropriate procedures for data collection, storage,
protection, and destruction, according to the current EU data protection
regulations for data protection and ethical principles. This means written
material will be stored in secured locations (institutional servers and hard
drives), data processed and stored digitally will be anonymized and any
publication derived from personal data will be presented in a way that makes
it impossible to identify individuals. To do that, each participant will
receive a code number. Only the person in charge of the study will have a list
with names and codes to allow participants to withdraw the data at any point
in time during the study. Moreover, personal background-related data will be
stored separately from research relevant data.

Concerning **long-term conservation** and **secure storage** of public
research data and dissemination materials (e.g. journal articles, reports,
policy briefs, etc.), these will be ensured using the open repository ZENODO,
which is expected to retain items for the lifetime of the repository. On the
other hand, restricted research data (e.g. interview recordings, notes from
focus groups and workshops, responses from the self-administered
questionnaire, etc.) will be stored in institutional servers (located in
Germany), and retained for a period of 3 years after the project ends. To
access these data, PROSEU project has created a  _project management_
_platform_ that facilitates the efficient management of the project’s files
and datasets. The PROSEU platform is only accessible to the Consortium
partners, which use an individual username and password to access the system.
Thus, no external access to restricted documents is possible. Through the
establishment of users’ roles for each member, the project coordinator has set
up the level of permission to create, modify or delete the information stored
on the system. Therefore, only specific members have right to delete
information contained in the system. Finally, **data recovery** will be
secured through periodical back-ups of PROSEU restricted research data will be
done in external hard-drives that will be kept secure by the corresponding WP
and/or task leader/s.

#  Ethical aspects

In agreement with the participatory basis of the project, which will require
the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, the PROSEU Consortium has set out
ethical and data protection frameworks that will guide the project’s research
practices. These are in line with the EU key ethical principles and research
codes of conduct, as well as the current regulations on Data Protection. Thus,
ethical principles and research codes of conduct concerning privacy and
personal data protection have been addressed.

All participants will be given an **Informed Consent Form** to be signed, upon
voluntary agreement, prior to participating in any project activities. This
form will contain, among other information, instructions about how they can
ask for their data to be destroyed and/or removed from the project. Each
Consortium Partner conducting activities that include interaction with
research participants/stakeholders is responsible for securing the signed
Informed Consent Form and storing it in a secure location for possible future
verification and use. Additionally, participants will receive a **Participant
Information Sheet** , which will include detailed information about how the
information gathered during the project will be used and what will happen with
the results of the research. Moreover, a description of the procedures adopted
to guarantee the participant's privacy will be described. Participants must be
competent to understand the information they are given (which will be
translated in the languages of every participant country) and should be fully
aware of the implications of their consent. All participants will be told that
they can withdraw from taking part in PROSEU at any time and ask for their
data to be destroyed and/or removed.

Participants will be reassured that any **personal data** will remain
confidential, will be stored in institutional servers, and will not be shared
with third parties, nor transferred between countries, in agreement with the
General Regulation on Data Protection from 25 May 2018, and the EU Directive
2016/679. After the completion of the research all personal data will be
destroyed.

A detailed description of the ethical and data protection procedures, as well
as the documents above mentioned (Informed Consent Form and Participant
Information Sheet) can be found in the PROSEU Deliverable 9.1 and Deliverable
9.2 (namely, Ethics Requirements 1 and 2).

#  Other issues

The application of other national, institutional, departmental, or group
procedures on data management, data sharing and/or data security are not
expected at this stage.