#  1 Introduction

##  1.1 Preamble

The _**5G ESSENCE Project** _ 1  ( _**Grant Agreement (GA) No.761592** _ )
_-hereinafter mentioned as the “Project”-_ is an active part of the 5G-PPP –
phase 2 initiative  2  .

5G ESSENCE addresses the paradigms of Edge Cloud computing and Small Cell as-
a-Service (SCaaS) by fuelling the drivers and removing the barriers in the
Small Cell (SC) market, forecasted to grow at an impressive pace up to 2020
and beyond, and to play a “key role” in the 5G ecosystem  3  ,  4  .

In fact, 5G ESSENCE provides a highly flexible and scalable platform, able to
support new business models and revenue streams by creating a neutral host
market and reducing operational costs, by providing new opportunities for
ownership, deployment, operation and amortisation.

The technical approach exploits the benefits of the centralisation of Small
Cell functions as scale grows through an edge cloud environment based on a
two-tier architecture, that is: a first distributed tier for providing low
latency services and a second centralised tier for providing high processing
power for computing-intensive network applications. This allows decoupling the
control and user planes of the Radio Access Network (RAN) and achieving the
benefits of Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) without the enormous fronthaul latency
restrictions  5  . The use of end-to-end (E2E) network slicing mechanisms will
allow sharing the 5G ESSENCE infrastructure among multiple operators/vertical
industries and customising its capabilities on a _per-tenant_ basis. The
versatility of the architecture is enhanced by high-performance virtualization
techniques for data isolation, latency reduction and resource efficiency, and
by orchestrating lightweight virtual resources enabling efficient Virtualized
Network Function (VNF) placement and live migration.

Among the fundamental 5G ESSENCE objectives are: Full specification of
critical architectural enhancements; definition of the baseline system
architecture and interfaces for the provisioning of a cloud-integrated
multitenant SC network and a programmable radio resources management (RRM)
controller; development of the centralized software-defined radio access
network (SD-RAN) controller to program the radio resources usage in a unified
way for all CESCs (Cloud-Enabled Small Cells); exploitation of high-
performance and efficient virtualization techniques for better resource
utilization, higher throughput and less delay at the network service creation
time; development of orchestrator’s enhancements for the distributed service
management; demonstration and evaluation of the cloud-integrated multi-tenant
SC network; conduct of a market analysis and establishment of new business
models, and finally, maximization of impact to the realization of the 5G
vision  6  .

The 5G ESSENCE Project will accommodate a range of use cases, in terms of
reduced latency, increased network resilience, and less service creation time.
One of its major innovations is the provision of E2E network and cloud
infrastructure slices over the same physical infrastructure, so that to
fulfill vertical-specific requirements as well as mobile broadband services,
_in parallel_ .

5G ESSENCE leverages knowledge, SW modules and prototypes from various 5G-PPP
Phase-1 projects, SESAME  7  being particularly relevant.

Building upon these foundations, very ambitious objectives are targeted,
culminating with the prototyping and demonstration of 5G ESSENCE system in
three real-life use cases associated to vertical industries, that is: edge
network acceleration in a crowded event; mission critical applications for
public safety (PS) communications providers, _and_ ; in-flight entertainment
and connectivity (IFEC) communications.

##  1.2 Framework for Data Management

An old tradition and a new technology have been “converged” to realize an
exceptional public good. The “ _old tradition_ ” is the willingness of
scientists and scholars to publish -or to make known- the results of their
research in scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and
knowledge and for the promotion of innovation. The “ _new technology_ ” is the
Internet that has radically modified our lives in the way we work, we study,
we amuse or we perceive the modern digital world  8  . The Internet has
fundamentally changed the practical and economic realities of distributing
scientific knowledge and cultural heritage. For the first time ever, the
Internet now offers the chance to constitute a global and interactive
representation of human knowledge, including cultural heritage and the
guarantee of worldwide access  9  ,  10  . The challenge becomes greater in
the framework of the forthcoming 5G applications and facilities  11  .

The “public good” they can so make possible is the world-wide electronic
distribution of the peer- _reviewed_ journal literature, together with a
“completely free” and/or unrestricted access to it by all scientists,
scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds. Removing access
barriers to this literature will accelerate research, enrich education, share
the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this
literature _as useful as it can be_ , and lay the foundation for uniting
humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge.

According to the provisions of the 5G ESSENCE Grant Agreement (GA)  12  , all
involved partners “ _must implement the Project effort as described in the
respective Annex 1 and in compliance with the provisions of the GA and all
legal obligations under applicable EU, international and national law”._

Effective research data management is an important and valuable component of
the responsible conduct of research. This document provides a data management
plan (DMP), which describes how data will be collected, organised, managed,
stored, secured, backuped, preserved, and where applicable, shared.

The scope of the present DMP is to make the 5G ESSENCE data easily
discoverable, accessible, assessable and intelligible, useable beyond the
original purpose for which it was collected as well as interoperable to
specific quality standards.

7

H2020 5GPPP SESAME (Grant Agreement No.671596) project: S _mall Cells
Coordination for Multi-tenancy and Edge Services_ . For more details see  :
__http://www.sesame-h2020-5g-ppp.eu/_ _

8

See, for example, the framework discussed within:

European Commission (2012, June): Communication on “ _A European strategy for
Key-Enabling Technologies- A bridge to growth and jobs_ ” (COM(2012) 341
final, 26.06.2012). Brussels, European Commission, 2012.

9

See the context proposed in:

Barfield, C.E., Heiduk, G.S., and Welfens, P.J.J. (2003): _Internet, Economic
Growth and Globalization_ . Springer.

10

Tselentis, G., Domingue, L., Galis, A., Gavras, A., et _al._ (2009): _Towards
the Future Internet – A European Research Perspective_ . IOS Press (2009). 11

See, _among others_ , the context discussed in: Chiang, M., Balasubramanian,
B., and Bonomi, F. (2017, June): _Fog for 5G and IoT_ . Wiley. 12

As predicted in _Article 7.1 (“General obligation to properly implement the
Action”)_ of the GA.

#  2 Project Management Structure and Procedures

Being a **large contribution Project** of 30 calendar months duration,
actually comprising of **21 partners** 7  , and of complexity comparable to
traditional large IP projects, the 5G ESSENCE management structure has been
carefully designed and established, based on the coordinator’s and partners’
experience in running large ECfunded projects; this comprises of a
**comprehensive and lightweight management structure.**

The main goal of the management structure, as shown in _**Figure 1** _
(below), is to ensure that the Project will reach its objectives, in the
scheduled time, and making use of the budgeted resources, while explicitly
complying with the Commission’s regulation and applied procedures.

The well-defined project management (PM) structure ensures a proper level of
co-ordination and cooperation amongst the consortium members. Additionally,
project management implies, _inter-alia_ , for the following responsibilities:
Project administration, project organization, management of the technical
progress of the project according to plans, co-ordination with the other EC
projects in the 5G-PPP  8  and other interested parties. The Project
Coordinator ( _OTE_ ) has already previous experience in managing large
European projects that fully qualifies it to lead such an initiative. An
intensive horizontal (between WPs) and vertical (between project management
and partners) communication and collaboration has been put in place, for the
proper and within due time execution of all related actions.

The 5G ESSENCE- _based_ management activities comprise administrative and
technical issues, including the legal framework and the organizational
structure of the complete Project’s framework. Furthermore, a roadmap of
meetings and workshops and related activities as well as quality assurance
procedures and steering tools are described. The goal of the project
management activities is also to “identify and address” potential issues,
risks or conflicts emerging across partners, and manage the intellectual
property related to both prior knowledge as well as Project achievements.

The 5G ESSENCE partners have significant experience with collaborative
projects and have been -or are- already working together with other consortia.
All partners have a long-term strategic interest in the field, and most of
them have contributed significantly to the R&D topics at the core of the
5G-PPP vision in previous/running projects. Main criteria for the selection of
each partners’ role were excellence in the field, reliability, experience and
commitment, as discussed in more details in the context of the Project’s GA.

5G ESSENCE consists of eight (-8-) distinct Work Packages, as described in
_Section 3.1_ of the corresponding

DoW. A visual representation of the interdependencies between the work
packages is given in the Gantt and Pert diagrams, as both appear in _Section
3.1.1_ and in _Section 3.1.4_ of the DoA, _correspondingly_ . The advanced
research parts in the Project will be managed by using an agile management,
based on decision points and concrete milestones.

The Project organisational structure and decision-making mechanisms has also
been formalised in the Consortium Agreement (CA) that has been signed before
the official start of the Project. The management levels and their
interdependencies are described in the following sections.

In the rest of this Section, we explicitly describe the governance part that
identifies the key roles and bodies, the management process, knowledge and
innovation management, including the risk assessments.

**Figure 1:** 5G ESSENCE Management Structure

##  2.1 Management bodies and Organization

The management bodies employed in 5G ESSENCE comprise persons, committees and
other entities that are responsible for making management decisions,
implementing management actions, and their interrelation. The management
bodies are illustrated in _**Figure 1** _ and include:

  * PM - Project Manager (Dr. Ioannis Chochliouros, _OTE_ , for administrative management); 

  

  * TM - Technical and Scientific Manager (Dr. Anastasios Kourtis, _NCSRD_ , for technical management); 

  

  * IA - Innovation Architect (Mrs. Maria Belesioti  9  , _OTE_ , Knowledge, for innovation & exploitation management); 

  

  * KIM Team (Knowledge and Innovation Management Team); 

  

  * SM - Standardization Manager (Dr. Felipe Huici, _NEC_ , for standardisation and exploitation management); 

  

  * Diss&Comm (Dissemination and Communication) Leader (Mrs. Maria-Rita Spada, _WI3_ , for dissemination and communication management); 

  

  * GA - General Assembly (one representative per partner, administrative management); 

  

  * PB - Project Board, executive committee acting as decision-implementation body; 

  

  * AB - Advisory Board (chaired by PM, for International visibility beyond Europe); - WPLs - Work Packages Leaders, and; - TLs - Task Leaders. 

  

Their detailed role and duties are described in the next subsections.

####  (i) Project Manager (PM)

The Project Manager (PM) for 5G ESSENCE is Dr. Ioannis Chochliouros, who is a
senior manager and department head at OTE. Dr. Chochliouros is leader of _OTE
Research Programs_ within the _Fixed & Mobile Technology Strategy and Core
Network Division, _ within _OTE_ , since 2005. Dr. Chochliouros who is also
exercising the role of the Project Coordinator (PC) has substantial and proven
experience in the coordination of both scientific and RTD projects involving
many partners and complex research goals and has been involved in decision-
making positions in at least 45 (European, national and international)
research projects. He is also Project Manager of the ongoing 5G-PPP Phase-1
SESAME project. The main role of the PM is the charge of the overall
administrative management of the Project, being the single point of contact
with the EC. The PM is responsible for the following tasks _(amongst others
tasks as explicitly defined by the EC Grant Agreement and the partner’s
Consortium Agreement)_ : (i) Monitor Project’s progress on a daily basis, for
continuous rating of achievements, objectives, tasks, WPs with global view of
the overall Project, ensuring a smooth running of activities and collaboration
among all partners, identifying problems and consequences for future research;
(ii) Provide the Project Management Plan which describes the project
management structure, procedures for communication, documentation, payments
and cost statements, procedures to control Project progress and risk
management; (iii) Quality procedures and quality assurance (QA); (iv)
Coordination between the EC and the consortium, communicating all information
in connection with the Project to the EC; (v) Document transmission to the EC,
including all contractual documents and reports related to the administrative,
financial, scientific, and technical progress of the Project; (vi) Coordinate
and manage the Project’s Advisory Board together with the TM; (vii)
Participate in the 5G-PPP programme-level Steering Board (SB) as recommended
by the 5G-PPP program. In summary, the PC is the legal, contractual, financial
and administrative manager of the Project.

####  (ii) Technical and Scientific Manager (TM)

The Technical and Scientific Manager (TM) for 5G ESSENCE is Dr. Anastasios
Kourtis, Research Director at _NCSRD_ . He has more than 30 years of
experience in managing and successfully executing research and industrial
projects, in particular, at _NCSRD_ , he has been an active player from the
start of the EC framework programs and most recently within FP7, where he is
currently PM of T-NOVA  10  (FP7 ICT) and TM for VITAL  11  ( _H2020_ ICT),
CloudSat  12  (ESA) projects. He is also Technical Manager of the ongoing
5G-PPP Phase-1 SESAME project. He has a strong background on wireless and
wired broadband network infrastructures, multimedia applications, Quality of
Service (QoS), network management (NM) and network virtualization. The TM is
in charge of the overall scientific and technical management and progress of
the Project. He is responsible for the correct execution of the technical
activities of the contract, as described in the respective GA. His tasks
comprise, _in particular_ , ensuring timely release, technical high quality
and accuracy of technical deliverables. The TM is the “promoter” of the
technical achievement of the Project, in association with the PM and the
Diss&Comm Manager (i.e., the WP8 Leader), to ensure appropriate Project
visibility. He works in close cooperation with the WP Leaders and will receive
the support of the PM. The TM will also participate in the programme-level
Technology Board (TB) established by the 5G-PPP), towards technical planning
of joint activities and monitoring the progress against the technical KPIs.

####  (iii) Innovation Architect (IA)

The 5G ESSENCE project has appointed a dedicated Innovation Architect (IA),
who will chair the _Knowledge and Innovation Management (KIM)_ _Team_
activities in the Project, together with the Standardisation Manager and the
Technical Manager. The role of the Innovation Architect is to study and
analyse both market and technical aspects, and “bridge the “Project research
achievements to a successful implementation and deployment in the real world.
The Innovation Architect for 5G ESSENCE is currently Mrs. Maria Belesioti  13
, expert from OTE’s R&D. She brings several years of market and mobile-
industry experience and background, and has a successful track in productising
research and innovation activities and patents, and has the experience and
capabilities to recognise (and foster) “ _how advanced scientific results can
be transformed into products and market opportunities_ ”. Indeed, the
Innovation Architect will assist and advise the Project in best responding to
emerging market opportunities. In turns, by thoroughly following the evolution
of the sector, the new emerging technologies and the products from 5G ESSENCE,
the IA will help bringing all this inside the Project, utilising his position
as chair of the Knowledge and Innovation Management (KIM) activities in the
project.

####  (iv) Innovation Architect (IA)

**Knowledge and Innovation Management (KIM) Team:** The KIM team which is
composed by PB members and WPLs and chaired by the IA, will assure an
effective innovation management developing and constantly updating both a
market analysis and a business plan for the results achieved by 5G ESSENCE,
monitoring also IPR issues as regulated in the CA. For handling patents, the
consortium will also apply proven methods used in previous Community projects.

####  (v) Standardisation Manager (SM)

The 5G ESSENCE Project has appointed a dedicated Standardization Manager (SM),
who will coordinate the standardisation activities in the Project. The Project
has appointed Dr. Felipe Huici, from _NEC_ , to undertake the corresponding SM
role. The main activity of the SM is to monitor and plan the standardisation
strategy together with the Innovation Architect and the Technical and
Scientific Manager, and to periodically “monitor and assess” the
standardisation potential of the scientific results from the Project. Dr.
Huici brings several years of experience in Standardisation within _NEC_ and
has both the knowledge and the ability to quickly “identify” opportunities for
standardisation and to spot the right Standards Developing Organisation (SDO)
for specific 5G ESSENCE innovations. The SM will periodically report to the
KIM team about the progress of standardisation and open-source development
activities within 5G ESSENCE, which will then be reported to the EC and
further, presented to the 5G-PPP WG _on Standardization_ in order to create
joint opportunities, with the aim of creating joint opportunities for
targeting specific SDO’s which need collective strategy from the 5G-PPP board,
in order to “push” European interests globally.

####  (vi) Dissemination & Communication Leader (DissComm Leader)

The 5G ESSENCE Project has appointed a Dissemination & Communication Leader to
coordinate the promotional activities and dissemination of the Project. This
role will be handled by Dr. Maria Rita Spada from _WI3_ , who is also the WP8
Leader. The _Diss &Comm Leader _ will be in charge of all the dissemination-
_related_ priorities in 5G ESSENCE, and she will also pursue the strategy to
have optimum visibility within the 5G-PPP initiative, and beyond, to secure a
wide dissemination and awareness of 5G ESSENCE. The Diss&Comm Leader will work
closely with the WP8 task leaders, and the PB in order to regularly update and
inform about the Diss&Comm activities and will also execute the planned
Diss&Comm strategy in a coherent manner together with the PB members.

####  (vii) General Assembly (GA)

The General Assembly (GA) is the decision-making body of the Project, chaired
by the PM and composed by one representative per partner (each having one
vote), allowing for the participation of each partner in the collective
decisions of the Project. The GA is responsible for the strategic orientation
of the Project, that is: overall direction of all activities, reorientation
whenever necessary, budget revision and measures taken to manage defaulting
partners. To ensure the Project is advancing in time and quality with the
work-plan, and is adapting as necessary to external changes, the GA will
analyse performance indicators and all other relevant information provided by
the Project Board and take into account the evolution of the context in which
the Project is carried out, notably scientific, legal, societal, and economic
aspects, etc. The GA meets at least three times per year, unless intermediate
meetings are in the Project’s interest. In this case, GA meetings are held by
decision of the PM or by the request of at least 50% of its members. In
between meetings, the GA can take decisions by electronic means. The GA is the
ultimate decision-making body and tries to reach consensus whenever possible;
in the opposite case, the GA makes decisions upon simple majority with a
deciding vote for the PM representative, _in case of a tie_ .

####  (viii) Project Board (PB)

The Project Board (PB), composed by a reduced number of members, will
facilitate the management and monitoring of the Project. It is made up of the
WP Leaders, and will be chaired by the PM with the assistance of the TM, who
will be deputing the PM. Compared to the GA, the PB is “more focused” on the
operational management and can have more regular meetings, _when necessary_ .
It also prepares the decisions to be taken by the GA, ensures that these
decisions are properly implemented, and surveys ethical issues. The PB is also
in charge of the financial management of the WPs. It is also the
responsibility of the PB, as well as of the WPLs, to identify and assess risks
and provide contingency plans. The PB is composed of the following people  14
, each of them having both scientific excellence and strong experience in
large collaborative research and development projects; Dr. Ioannis
Chochliouros ( _OTE_ , PM, PB Chair, WP1 Leader), Dr. Anastasios Kourtis (
_NCSRD_ , WP2 Leader), Mrs. Maria Belesioti  15  ( _OTE_ , WP3 Leader), Dr.
Felipe Huici ( _NEC_ , WP4 Leader), Evangelos Sfakianakis ( _OTE_ , WP5
Leader), Dr. Mathieu Bouet ( _TCS_ , WP6 Leader), Dr. Tinku Rasheed ( _ZII_ ,
WP7 Leader), and Dr. MariaRita Spada ( _WI3_ , WP8 Leader).

The PB also defines the communication strategy to update partners about the
Project status, the planning and all other issues that are important to them,
to give maximum transparency to all involved partners and to increase the
synergy of the intended cooperation. Interactive management meetings and
technical meetings have an important role in the framework of the
communication strategy. All information -such as minutes of meetings, task
reports and relevant publications- will be communicated to the PM. It is the
strategy of the consortium to guarantee a fast and complete flow of
information. All partners have the means to communicate by using electronic
mail. The PB has bi-weekly meetings (with extra meetings held based on
purpose), either by conference call or during Project’s face-to-face Plenary
Meetings. The PB makes decisions upon simple majority with a deciding vote for
the PM representative, _in case of a tie_ .

####  (ix) Advisory Board (AB)

The 5G ESSENCE consortium will appoint an Advisory Board (AB) in order to
monitor the 5G ESSENCE- _related_ developments world-wide and ensure
visibility of the Project beyond Europe. The consortium plans to invite a
maximum of 3-5 members to the AB, which is to be chaired by the PM. The PM and
the PB will periodically organise remote conferences with the AB members to
update the Project activities and will gather information through semesterial
inputs. The AB members will be invited to annual workshops of 5G ESSENCE and,
_further,_ they will be invited to participate to the final Project demos.
While preparing the proposal, the 5G ESSENCE consortium has already received
promising inputs (a few letters of support are already updated in the Annex,
Section A2, for the DoA). The AB is composed of the following members: _AT &T
_ (Dr. Steven Wright); _Nokia_ (Mr. Dirk Lindemeier); _Vodafone_ (Dr. Guenter
Klas). There has been an updated list of potential candidates in the recent
Project’s Face-to-Face (F2F) Plenary Meeting and General Assembly Meeting.
More stakeholders will be incorporated if the consortium desires to further
strengthen its visibility.

#####  (x) Work Package Leaders (WPLs)

Each work package is led by the WP Leader (WPL), who is responsible for making
the day-to-day technical and management decisions that solely affect that WP.
The WP leaders’ responsibilities include: (i) Leading and coordinating the
task activities involved in the WP through the Task Leaders; (ii) Initial
quality checking of the WP work and deliverables; (iii) Handling
resource/skills balance within the WP subject to agreement of the PB to
changes; (iv) Participating in the PB meetings; (v) Highlighting to the PB of
potential threats to the technical success of the Project, _and_ ; (vi)
Reporting progress to the PB and raise amendments, issues and red flags to the
TM if needed.

####  (xi) Task Leaders (TLs)

Each Task is led by the Task Leader (TL), who is responsible for the
activities performed in his/her task, coordinating the technical work, and
making the day-to-day technical decisions that solely affect his/her Task. TLs
should report (internally) to the WPL at least once a month on the progress of
their task.

##  2.2 Management Procedures

Technical and operative decisions will be taken as far as possible informally,
and through achieving consensus. The various procedures are designed to ensure
that the Project runs smoothly, by ensuring that the goals are clearly defined
and understood, the WPs represent a sensible division of the work and comprise
the necessary expertise to fulfil the objectives, responsibilities are clearly
assigned, and there are transparent lines of communication among the
participants. A Consortium Agreement (CA) provides explicitly the rules and
terms of reference for any issue of legal nature concerning the co-operation
among the parties as well as the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of
individual partners and the consortium “ _as a whole_ ”.

For administrative, technical or operative decisions for which no consensus
can be reached, the Project will rely on the Project Board.

For decisions regarding budget redistribution, consortium composition or major
decisions on the workplan the Project Board is the highest decision making
body in the Project. Any project management decision, either technical or
administrative, taken by the Project Board is mandatory for all project
members, and may not be overruled within the Project.

###  2.2.1 Reporting to the EC

5G ESSENCE follows the procedures presented in the Project guide  16  to
ensure on-time, transparent and highquality reporting to the EC. Project
reporting as well as internal intermediary reporting follows a planning
approach with several verifications. This method allows delivery of high-
quality reports, providing very accurate insight into the status of the
Project. The following reporting will be done: (i) Periodic reports will be
provided to the EC (M12+2, M24+2, M30+2); (ii) In between the periodic reports
there will be internal semestrial reports for the PM to “keep track” of the
Project performance. The periodic report is mandatory in all European
projects.

Deliverables and milestones follow a procedure with fixed regular reminders,
peer review by two (-2-) partners not involved in the specific reporting,
checking by the relevant WPL, followed by final validation by the PM and the
PB. This procedure results in on-time, high-quality deliverables and
milestones.

Periodic Progress Reports (PPRs) will be collated with the reporting periods,
prior to each project review and submitted and sent to the Project Officer by
the PM. These reports detail the work performed by the partners, the
achievements, collaborations, resources spent/planned, and future plans and,
together with the Financial Statements, will serve as the main Project
Management documentation.

_**Decision making:** _ The GA provides a forum for discussing management
issues and major technical issues. Decisions of the GA are binding for the
entire Project. All reports, such as the periodic reports, any management
reports and the deliverables will be discussed and approved before sending
them to the EC. Procedures for making decisions at a managerial level, to be
taken by the GA, are detailed in the Consortium Agreement.

Day-to-day decisions at the technical level are to be taken by the
corresponding WP Leader(s) where needed, after consultation with the PM. The
Project Board meetings, which will involve the PM and the principal partners
will _-if necessary_ \- decide on major issues by a majority vote with the PM
having the casting vote. All decisions will be taken unanimously, if feasible.
If the members cannot come to an agreement, a voting procedure _-as detailed
in the CA-_ will take place. It is envisaged that full majority would be
necessary to achieve a decision. The consortium has planned to physically meet
for face-to-face (F2F) meetings at least 3 times a year, where most of the
technical meetings (including GA meeting, Joint WP meetings, KIM team
meetings, etc.) will be co-located over a period of 2-3 days, at the premises
of the project partners (chosen under the principle of giving equal
opportunity to each partner to host meetings).

###  2.2.2 Progress Monitoring and Quality Assurance

In order to guarantee an optimal allocation of resources to the Project
activities, tasks as well as responsibilities and partner involvement have
been well defined. The management procedures for monitoring progress and
responding to changes have been documented in the Quality Assurance Plan
(i.e., the deliverable D1.2, submitted in M2) and executed regularly. This
constitutes a continuous “cyclic” monitoring process to be implemented in the
course of the full Project. Each cycle time will be of six calendar months.
The PM is ultimately responsible for the quality control (QC) of the
deliverables to the EC, coordinating closely on technical quality checks with
the TM. Consequently, the PM can request remedial action and additional
reports, should any doubt regarding progress, timescales or quality of work
make this necessary. Every contractual deliverable, prior to its submission to
the EC, will be the subject of a peer review by persons not directly involved
in either the subject matter or the creation of that deliverable. Where
necessary, the PM could request further work of the partners on a deliverable,
to ensure that it complies with the project’s contractual requirements.

The PM will organise regular assessment meetings with all the partners, in
addition to the PB meetings. These meetings will serve as preparation for the
EC review and the necessary periodic reports. The purpose of these meetings
will be to report on the progress so far and to redefine (if necessary) the
Description of the Action (DoA) for the remaining part of the GA. The PB will
regularly handle risk management and contingency plans. The PM and the PB will
jointly be in charge for preparing for the regular project reviews with the
EU. Specific access will be setup for the project reviewers (to the Project
intranet, code repository and the KIM database) to review the Project
progress. The consortium proposed the EC to organise three reviews during the
Project lifecycle. The European Commission has finally accepted two reviews,
that is: a first review on M12 and the final review on M30.

**5G ESSENCE internal information flows:** The strategy will be to keep the
partners fully informed about the Project status, the planning and other
issues that are important with regard to maximising the transparency and
increasing synergy of co-operation and efficiency. The communication between
partners having closely related work will be more frequent and informal (in
_ad-hoc_ meetings, phone conferences and by e-mail) including on-site visits
of personnel involved when appropriate. Informal technical interim reports
covering topics such as technical requirements, architectural issues,
progressing techniques, measurements/simulation practices and so on will be
developed -if needed- and will be distributed among the Project partners. In
increasing level of formality, WPLs will regularly call for WP phone calls. As
a reference, WP- _level_ phone calls will be conducted on a monthly basis, _at
least_ . The corresponding WPL will be responsible for fixing the agenda,
which will usually include time slots for discussions on upcoming
Deliverables. The Deliverable Editor will lead this part of the discussion,
while the WPL will lead the general technical discussions around the on-going
tasks. After the phone call, the WPL will release the minutes in copy to the
TM. In this way, each WPL will report regularly to the TM and will give an
overview of the work progress and any arising issues. These lines of
communication will ensure that any major deviation from the work plan will be
spotted immediately and prompt appropriate corrective action can be taken.

The formal flow of information will take place during Technical Meetings
(face-to-face/F2F), which will be conducted approximately three times a year.
The objectives of these meetings will be to discuss technical issues and
overall project progress. Representatives will report to the rest of partners,
thus highlighting any divergence from the proposed plan and schedule. The PM
will be responsible (with the assistance of TM and WPLs) for the preparation
of the agendas, co-ordination of the meetings, and production of the minutes.
On the other side, a project collaborative infrastructure, accessible through
the web, has been set-up and used for distribution of documents among
partners. This infrastructure will enable all partners to deposit and retrieve
all relevant information regarding the Project. Furthermore it will include
the capability of collaborative edition of documents, thus improving joint
document management within the project. The Project Coordinator has
established and will maintain this infrastructure. More detailed information
is given in the related 5G ESSENCE deliverable _D1.1 (“Project Website”)._

**Deliverables handling:** Deliverables will be elaborated as a joint effort
among the partners involved in the related WP. Their completion will be under
the responsibility of the relevant WPL, who will be assisted by the
Deliverable Editor identified in the workplan and will count on the
contributions from the other partners. The Deliverable Editor will establish a
calendar for the elaboration of the document well in advance of the submission
deadline, considering several rounds of contributions and rounds for
discussion and refinement.

Once the Deliverable Editor and WPL feel that the document is completed, it
will be forwarded to the TM, who will check that it is compliant with the
quality assurance (QA) directives. If needed, the document will return to the
WP domain for complete alignment with the desired quality. Once approved by
the TM, the document will be forwarded to PB for formal approval before
submission to EC. If comments arise from PB, again the document will return to
WP domain and a new iteration will be established. When defining the calendar,
the following periods need to be considered: (i) PB validation process starts
10 days in advance of official deliverable submission deadline; (ii) TM review
process starts 20 days in advance of official deliverable submission deadline.
Therefore, 10 days are enabled for TM to review and comment on the document
and the WP to address the comments in case, before the document is forwarded
to PB. Editorial guidelines (not only for Deliverables but for all types of
documents used in the project), templates and document naming policies will be
defined and will be available in the document management platform.

**Information dissemination outside the 5G ESSENCE domain:** One of the
objectives of the 5G ESSENCE is to raise awareness and impact on a wider
community. Consequently, a specific task (T8.1) has been considered in the
workplan and a specific dissemination plan with concrete goals for
dissemination that will oblige each individual partner to undertake certain
activities and actions will be defined, as in the related deliverable _D8.1
(“Plans for Dissemination, Communication, Standardisation and Exploitation,
Interaction with 5G-PPP”_ ). The dissemination processes are detailing the 5G
ESSENCE ambitions and means, and describing the overall processes encompassing
plans, execution, review and approval, reporting and impact analysis. These
will be followed as specified in the CA. Decision on the dissemination level
of the project foreground will be made by the PB. Any objection to the planned
dissemination actions shall be made in accordance with the Grant Agreement.

**Technical problems and conflict resolution:** Technical problems will be
discussed on the level of each WP. The WPL leader will lead discussions and
make decisions, while ensuring that the work plan is respected. The WPL shall
report to the TM technical problems or solutions that have or may have
influences on other WPs. If a problem cannot be solved on the level of the WP,
the TM is responsible of taking a decision to solve the problem amicably. In
the unlikely event of conflict not being resolved at TM level, PM and PB will
be responsible to mediate in the conflict and to facilitate an end to the
conflict. They will act in accordance to what will be established in the
Consortium Agreement.

**Consortium Agreement (CA):** As mandated by EU project contractual
obligations, all partners of the consortium needed to sign a Consortium
Agreement before the contract with the European Commission is executed. Role
of the Project Management (and especially of the PM together with the PB) is
to modify and/or update the preestablished CA, based on the possibly changing
conditions in the Projects (change of partners, “shift” of responsibilities,
change of technical boundary conditions, etc.). The purpose of the actual CA
is to specify the internal organization of the work between the partners, to
organise the management of the Project, to define rights and obligations of
the partners, including -but not limited to- their respective liability and
indemnification as to the work performed under the Project, and more generally
to define and rule the legal structure and functioning of the consortium.
Moreover, the CA also addresses issues such as appropriate management of
knowledge in the sense of protection of know-how and more generally of any
knowledge and relevant intellectual property rights in any way resulting from
the Project. The CA also has the purpose to integrate or “supplement” some of
the provisions of the Grant Agreement, for example those concerning Access
Rights; as to the ruling of certain matters, the CA may set out specific
rights and obligations of the partners, which may integrate or supplement, but
which will under no circumstance be in conflict with those of the GA.

#  3 Knowledge Management and Protection Strategy

##  3.1 Management of Knowledge

Information flows within the Project both vertically and horizontally. The
“vertical flow” of information comprises principally the administrative issues
(e.g., financial progress reports, consolidated reports, meeting minutes and
cost claims/advance payments), whereas the scientific and technical
information flow is generally more appropriate to a less formal and horizontal
process. The core of the information exchange is the 5G ESSENCE web portal
that is visible to 5G ESSENCE partners (also known as the _Collaborative
Working Environment_ ). Any collaborating partners will acquire free access on
a confidential basis to all items displayed in the KM database, unless
additional _ad-hoc_ restrictions have been negotiated, in advance. This
platform also includes basic workflow tools to automate and simplify the
working procedures. For the Project partners, the website provides full access
to all achievements in detail, whereas the annual report, publications, and
sequence search sections will be open also to the public. Project summary,
general information and public reports have will be made available for
everybody on the Internet, also as a means to effectively communicate and
coordinate, _if possible_ , with parties outside the consortium (such as other
related 5G-PPP projects or the European Commission (EC)). The EC will receive
a special access code to access the necessary reports as well as to access
prototypes on the review process, _if and/or where necessary_ . The database
and periodic reports will greatly help in assembling the Annual and Interim
Reports for the Commission.

More detailed information about the exact repositories of the Project,
corresponding to a public website accessed by any third party and to a private
website accessed by authorised physical and/or legal persons is given in the
already submitted deliverable _D1.1 (“Project Website”)_ .

5G ESSENCE will continuously host a comprehensive public website  (
__http://www.5g-essence-h2020.eu_ _ )  that will contain all relevant
information about the Project.

A public section allows sharing information and documents among all partners,
also including any other “third party” (i.e., physical and/or legal persons)
that may express interest to access such data and receive information about
the scope and the achievements of the 5G ESSENCE- _based_ effort. The public
section presents the specific aims, the vision and objectives as well as the
goals, the plan, the development(s) and the intended achievements of the
Project. It is also used to publish the public deliverables and the papers (as
well as other works and/or relevant presentations) that are to be presented or
accepted in international conferences, workshops, meetings and other similar
activities towards supporting a proper dissemination and exploitation policy
of the Project).

Furthermore it includes references to the related 5G-PPP context, as promoted
by the European Commission, and potentially affecting progress of the 5G
ESSENCE effort. In addition, the public part includes an indicative
description of the profiles of the involved 5G ESSENCE partners as well as a
part for links to other informative areas. There is also an explicit link to a
private part of the website, accessible only by the partners or the “
_beneficiaries_ ”) of the Project, by using specific credentials  (
__http://programsection.oteresearch.gr_ _ )  . _**Figure 2** _ provides an
indicative snapshot of the existing part of the public website.

The private part of the website serves as the “project management and
collaboration platform” bearing (among others) advanced document management
features (e.g. document versioning/history, documents checkin/out/locking,
etc.) and a powerful search functionality to ensure efficient work and
collaboration among partners.

The 5G ESSENCE consortium is always proactively taking supplementary measures
to raise awareness and encourage the implementation of the technical,
business, social and all other concepts developed though the development of
the public website.

**Figure 2:** 5G ESSENCE Public Section - _Welcome Screen_

##  3.2 Ethics and Management of IPRs

The 5G ESSENCE consortium is to respect the framework that is structured by
the joined provisions of:

  * The _European Directive 95/46/EC_ (“ _Protection of personal data”_ )  17  , and; 

  

  * _Opinion 23/05/2000 of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies concerning “Citizens Rights and New Technologies: A European Challenge”_ 18  . 

  

The 5G ESSENCE partners will also abide by professional ethical practices and
comply with the _Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union_ 19  .

It is important to mention, _at this part of the work_ , that detailed issues
governing Ethics have been fully covered in the framework of the Deliverable
D9.3 (“ _General Ethics Issues – Requirement No.3_ ”) that has been requested
by the European Commission as an additional composition in the context of the
additional WP9, following to the conclusion of the GA preparation.

In the same context, issues about protection of personal data have been
covered within the Deliverable D9.2 (“ _Protection of Personal Data (POPD) –
Requirement No.2_ ”).

Both D9.2 and D9.3 have provided detailed provisions for the respective
matters they are dealing with.

Besides the context provided in D9.2, certain guidelines will be implemented
in order to limit the risk of data leaks and these include the following:

  * Keep anonymised data and personal data of respondents separate; 

  

  * Encrypt data if it is deemed necessary by the local researchers; 

  

  * Store data in at least two separate locations to avoid loss of data; 

  

  * Limit the use of USB flash drives; 

  

  * Save digital files in one the preferred formats, _and_ ; 

  

  * Label files in a systematically structured way in order to ensure the coherence of the final dataset. 

  

The 5G ESSENCE consortium recognises the importance of IPRs under a basic
philosophy as discussed in the following sections: The general architecture
and scientific results defined during the course of the Project are public
domain research, intended to be used in international fora to advance
technological development and scientific knowledge. Basic methods,
architectures and functionalities should be available for scrutiny, peerreview
and adaptation. Only this way can industry and standardisation groups accept
the results of 5G ESSENCE and this is a procedure already applied in many
similar cases of research projects, until today. IPR will be managed in line
with a principle of equality of all the partners towards the foreground
knowledge and in full compliance with the general Commission policies
regarding ownership, exploitation rights and confidentiality.

Valuable IPRs that might come up during the course of the Project from the
work in the areas of new technological innovations with direct product use,
shall be protected by the consortium and/or single partner entity within the
Project. The IPRs shall be shared with reasonable rules, and the _H2020_
contract rules shall be strictly adhered to.

For handling patents, the consortium will also apply proven methods used in
previous EC projects. The partners will inform the consortium of technologies,
algorithms, etc. that they offer for use in the WPs that they have patented,
are in the process of patenting, or consider patenting. Similarly, if
patentable methods and techniques are generated within Project- _based_
activities, the patenting activities will aim to protect the rights of all
partners participating in these specific activities. Lists of patents related
to the Project, whether adopted, applied or generated will be maintained for
reference, and are to be included in reports submitted to the Commission.

The Consortium Agreement (CA) provides rules for handling confidentiality and
IPR to the benefit for the 5G

ESSENCE consortium and its partners. All Project’s documentation will be
stored electronically and as paper copies. Classified Documents will be
handled according to proper rules with regard to classification (as described
above), numbering and locked storing and distribution limitations.

In general, knowledge, innovations, concepts and solutions that are not going
to be protected by patent applications by the participants will be made public
after agreement between the partners, to “allow others to benefit” from these
results and exploit them. However, where results require patents to show the
impact of 5G ESSENCE, we will perform freedom to operate searches to determine
that this does not infringe on patents belonging to others.

The policy, that will govern the IPR management in the scope of 5G ESSENCE, is
driven by the following principles, which will be detailed in the Consortium
Agreement: (i) Policy for Ownership and Protection of knowledge; (ii)
Dissemination and Use policy; (iii) Access rights for use of knowledge; (iv)
Confidentiality; (v) Ownership of results / joint ownership of results /
difficult cases (i.e. pre-existing know-how so closely linked with result
difficult to distinguish pre-existing know-how and result); (vi) Legal
protection of results (patent rights); (vii) Commercial exploitation of
results and any necessary access right; (viii) Commercial obligation; (ix)
Relevant Patents, know-how, and information Sublicense, _and_ ; (x )Pre-
existing know-how excluded from contract.

Nevertheless, many specific IPR cases, that will need a concrete solution from
the bases previously fixed, may also exist. In these conflict situations, the
General Assembly will be the responsible Body to arbitrate a solution.

Furthermore, the IPR strategy and the updates will be monitored by the
Knowledge and Innovation Management (KIM) team and during the periodic
meetings; any IPR updates will be presented and approved upon consensus of the
KIM team.

#  4 Open Access Policy

Usually, academic research seems to be focused on questions of essential
scientific interest, the so-called “ _basic research”_ . This is generally
intended to merely disclose new scientific and technical knowledge through
publications. On the other hand, the _applied research_ performed by the
industry is normally aimed at commercialising the resulting innovation and,
therefore, it is intended to increase the company value. To this end, research
results are commonly protected through patents and trade secrets  26  .
According to this specific kind of distinction, a “publication” is the most
suitable means of knowledge dissemination for research
organizations/universities (ROs) as it permits the fastest and open diffusion
of research results, for the wider benefit of the research communities. On the
contrary, patents offer the industry the strongest protection to commercialise
their innovation and recover the costs of the research investments  27  .

However, this scenario has been critically changed, and expectations of _“how
ROs create and manage their knowledge”_ are changing rapidly, as this is
increasingly considered by academic personnel as a source of income. This is
also due to the fact that universities are encouraged to collaborate with
private companies on research projects in different areas, which constitutes
an expansion of their research interests into other sectors, such as
biotechnology, nanotechnology, ICT and so forth, _just to mention a few_ . As
a consequence, the “boundary” between scientific and applied research has
“blurred” and, while the industry dissemination approach did not go through
any significant transformation, the ROs' strategy moved away from the
traditional “publishing”. ROs have in fact started focusing on the opportunity
to patent  28  research results, and extract as much value as possible from
intellectual property (IP).

The two main means to “bring” technical and scientific knowledge to the public
are patent applications  29  and journal publications  30  ,  31  . With the
advent of the Internet, two alternative means are also available for
scientists and research companies either to maximise their IP value or to
disseminate scientific and technical knowledge. These are: The defensive
publications  32  and the **_Open Access_ model ** 33  ,  34  . Public
Internet is an emerging

26

See the detailed context proposed in the approach:

European IPR Helpdesk (July 2013): _Fact Sheet: Patenting v. publishing._
Available at  : __https://www.iprhelpdesk.eu/FS_Patenting_v._publishing_ _ .

27

See, for example: Sapsalisa, E., van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, B., and
Navon, R. (2006, December): Academic versus industry patenting: An in-depth
analysis of what determines patent value. _Research Policy_ , _35_ (10),
pp.1631-1645.

**28** d’Erme, R. (2013). _“Utility Models: A useful alternative to patents
for small businesses”._ European IPR Helpdesk Bulletin N°8, January - March
2013. Available at:

__http://www.iprhelpdesk.eu/sites/default/files/newsdocuments/IPR_Bulletin_No8_0.pdf#page=3_
_ .

29

Patenting entails the grant of a set of rights to exclusively use a certain
invention (i.e. product or process) for a certain period of time. In return
for this monopoly, the IP system asks the patent owner to disclose the
technical information describing the invention in order for others to access
it and continue to innovate based on it.

30

Dissemination of scientific knowledge through publication is one of the most
common and rapid instruments. Publishing, however, is not always as timely as
it may appear as the peer review process can delay the final article
publication. Moreover, publishers are often not prone to pay authors of
scientific articles who, in turn, are willing to publish for reasons related
to their career path, besides the primary wish of disseminating knowledge.

31

The protection granted by the IP system to an article or publication is
copyright, which arises automatically when the researcher writes it. It is
worth mentioning that copyright only protects expression of the words
contained in the text and its originality, but not the idea underlying the
research findings. Therefore, the best ways to prevent others from reusing the
inventions stemming from the research is patenting or keeping it as a secret.

32

A _**defensive publication** _ , or _defensive disclosure_ , is an
intellectual property strategy used to prevent another party from obtaining a
patent on a product, apparatus or method for instance. The strategy consists
in disclosing an enabling description and/or drawing of the product, apparatus
or method so that it enters the public domain and becomes prior art.
Therefore, the defensive publication of perhaps otherwise patentable
information may work to defeat the novelty of a subsequent patent application.
Unintentional defensive publication by incidental disclosure can render
intellectual property as prior art. One reason why companies decide to use
defensive publication over patents is cost.

More Details can be found at  _:_ __http://www.defensivepublications.org_ _ .

For a more concrete approach upon “defensive publishing” also see:

Adams, S., and Henson-Apollonio, V. (2002, September): Defensive publishing: a
strategy for maintaining intellectual property as public goods. _ISNAR
(International service for National Agricultural Research) Briefing Paper
No.53._ Available at  : __ftp://ftp.cgiar.org/isnar/publicat/bp-53.pdf_ _ .

functional medium for globally distributing knowledge, also being able to
significantly modify the nature of scientific publishing as well as the
existing system of quality assurance.

Enabling societal actors to interact in the research cycle improves the
quality, relevance, acceptability and sustainability of innovation outcomes by
integrating society’s expectations, needs, interests and values. Open access
is a key feature of Member States’ policies for responsible research and
innovation by making the results of research available to all and by
facilitating societal engagement  35  . Businesses can also benefit from wider
access to scientific research results; small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), in particular, can improve their capacity to innovate. Policies on
access to scientific information can also facilitate access to scientific
information for private companies. Open access to scientific research data  36
enhances data quality, reduces the need for duplication of research, speeds up
scientific progress and helps to combat scientific fraud  37  .

In the context of the 5G ESSENCE Project, expected publications are to be
published according to the _**Open Access (OA)** _ principles  38  . The
consortium will make use of both “green” (or self-archiving) and “gold” open
access options to ensure Open Access to an appropriate number of the
publications that are to be produced during the life-time of the Project.

Almost all the “top publications” in the fields related to the Project are
expected to be published via IEEE, Springer, Elsevier or ACM that provide
authors with both “gold” - _with either hybrid publication or open access
journals strategy_ \- and “green” open access options.

Major achievements of the Project will be considered to be published in a
“gold” open access modality in order to “increase” the target audience. This
implies the publication on Open Access Journals  39  or on Hybrid

33

_**Open Access (OA)** _ refers to the practice of granting free Internet
access to research articles. This model is deemed to be an efficient system
for broad dissemination of and access to research data and publications, which
can indeed accelerate scientific progress.

_Open access (OA)_ refers to online research outputs that are free of all
restrictions on access (e.g. access tolls) and free of many restrictions on
use (e.g. certain copyright and license restrictions). Open access can be
applied to all forms of published research output, including peer-reviewed and
non peer-reviewed academic journal articles, conference papers, theses, book
chapters, and monographs. Also see the discussion proposed in: Suber, P.
(2015): _Open Access Overview_ available at  :
__http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm_ _ .

Two degrees of open access can be distinguished: _gratis_ open access, which
is online access free of charge, and _libre_ open access, which is online
access free of charge plus various additional usage rights. These additional
usage rights are often granted through the use of various specific Creative
Common licenses. Libre open access is equivalent to the definition of open
access in the _Budapest Open Access Initiative_ , the _Bethesda Statement on
Open Access Publishing_ and the _Berlin Declaration on Open Access to
Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities_ .

The broader context is extensively discussed, _for example_ , within: Suber,
P. (2012): _Open access_ . MIT Press.

34

Also see: Hess, T., Wigand, R.T., Mann, F., and von Walter, B. (2007): _Open
Access & Science Publishing, Management Report 1/2007 - Results of a Study on
Researchers’ Acceptance and Use of Open Access Publishing. University of
Munich in cooperation with University of Arkansas. Available at: _

__http://openaccess-
study.com/Hess_Wigand_Mann_Walter_2007_Open_Access_Management_Report.pdf_ _ .

35

European Commission (2012, July): _Commission Recommendation of 17.07.2012 on
access to and preservation of scientific information [C(2012), 4890 final]._
Available at:
__https://ec.europa.eu/research/sciencesociety/document_library/pdf_06/recommendation-
access-and-preservation-scientific-information_en.pdf_ _ .

36

Economic and Social Research Council (2010). _ESRC research data policy_ .
Available at:  __www.esrc.ac.uk/aboutesrc/information/data-policy.aspx_ _ .
37

High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data (2010, October): _Final Report:
“Riding the wave: How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific
data”_ . Available at  :
__http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/docs/hlg-sdi-report.pdf_ _
.

38

See further detailed discussion about “Open Access” as IT appears below, in
the continuity of the present section.

39

_Open access (OA) journals_ are scholarly journals that are available online
to the reader “without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than
those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself”. They remove
price barriers (e.g. subscription, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and most
permission barriers (e.g. copyright and licensing restrictions). While open
access journals are freely available to the reader, there are still costs
associated with the publication and production of such journals. Some are
subsidized, and some require payment on behalf of the author. Some open access
journals are subsidized and are financed by an academic institution, learned
society or a government information center. Others are financed by payment of
article processing charges by submitting authors, money typically made
available to researchers by their institution or funding agency. These two are
referred to respectively as "gold" and "platinum" models to emphasize their
distinction, although other times “gold” OA is used to refer to both paid and
unpaid OA. Also see, _among others_ , the broader discussion proposed in:
__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_journal_ _ .

Journals  40  with OA agreement. The Article Processing Charges (APCs) that
apply will be covered by the Project budget.

Self-archiving -or “green” open access- peer- _reviewed_ scientific research
articles for dissemination will be published in scholarly journals that
consent self-archiving options compatible with “green” open access, where the
published article or the final peer- _reviewed_ manuscript is archived
(deposited) by the author \- _or a representative in case of multiple authors_
\- in an online repository before, alongside or after its publication. The 5G
ESSENCE Project will give preference to those journals that allow pre-print
self-archiving, in order to “maximise” the visibility of Project outcomes.

In fact, the 5G ESSENCE consortium follows the guidelines set forth by the EU
on its mandate for open access publications to all peer- _reviewed_ scientific
publications. In order to effectively comply and “guide” the partners to
achieve such a high-promising goal, an _**Open Access publication policy and
strategy** _ 41  is to take place and affect Project’s governing documentation
and further will be enforced and monitored by the Quality Manager (i.e., the
Project Coordinator).

According to this kind of policy, all scientific journals resulting from the
Project will be made “open access”

(with any exception needed to be approved by the Project Coordinator and
validated by the EU Project OfficerPO). Further, for other scientific
publications appearing in conference proceedings and other peer- _reviewed_
books, monographs or other “grey literature”, will be made available to the
general public through open access archives with very flexible licensing
(e.g., creative commons licenses) for the scientific community (open access
archives, such as arXiv (  __www.arxiv.org_ _ )  , researchgate (
__www.researchgate.net_ _ )  , CiteSeerX (  __citeseerx.ist.psu.edu_ _ )  can
be used for this purpose)  42  .

In an effort to “maximise” the expected impact with the scientific results and
associated data and the software (SW) code produced in the Project, the 5G
ESSENCE consortium will create a dedicated code/data repository in a
collaborative open source code management tool (e.g., GitHub  43  ) for 5G
ESSENCE to release all the mature software and other data associated to the
scientific publications. This will allow the broader community to “access” the
open source software and the related data and/or tools, which is used to
derive the scientific results presented in the articles and magazines.

40

A _hybrid open access journal_ is a subscription journal in which some of the
articles are open access. This status typically requires the payment of a
publication fee (also called an article processing charge or APC) to the
publisher.

41

More details for the broader European scope in the related thematic area can
be found at:

__https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/index.cfm?pg=access
&section=monitor _ _ .

42

Publication outputs will be placed either on arXiv or an analogous archive (in
accordance to the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR)) and links from
the project website to these Open Access publications will be published
timely, in order to maximise impact and visibility of 5G ESSENCE results and
its activities.

43

_**GitHub** _ is a Web-based Git repository hosting service. It offers all of
the distributed revision control and source code management (SCM)
functionality of Git as well as adding its own features. Unlike Git, which is
strictly a command-line tool, GitHub provides a web-based graphical interface
and desktop as well as mobile integration. It also provides access control and
several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task
management and wikis for every project.

See, _for example_ : Williams, A. (2012, July): G _itHub pours Energies into
enterprise – Raises $100 Million From Power VC_ _Andreessen Horowitz_ , Tech.
Crunch. Available at:  __http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/09/github-pours-
energies-into-enterprise-raises-100-million-from-power-vc-andreesenhorowitz/_
_ .

GitHub offers both plans for private repositories and free accounts, which are
usually used to host open-source software projects (
__https://github.com/about/press_ _ )  . In recent years, GitHub has become
the largest code host in the world, with more than 5M developers collaborating
across 10M repositories. Numerous popular open source projects (such as Ruby
on Rails, Homebrew, Bootstrap, Django or jQuery) have chosen GitHub as their
host and have migrated their code base to it. GitHub offers a tremendous
research potential. As of 2015, GitHub reports having over 11 million users
and over 29.4 million repositories (  __https://github.com/about/press_ _ )  ,
thus making it the largest host of source code in the world.

An interesting approach for the latter comment is discussed in: Gousios, G.,
Vasilescu, B., Serebrenik, A. and Zaidman, A. (2014). _Lean GHTorrent: GitHub
Data on Demand, in_ MSR-14 Proceedings (May 31- June 01, 2014), Hyderabad,
India.

ACM Publications.

For a wider informative scope about GitHub, also see the discussion presented
in  : __https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub_ _ .

For a variety of reasons, this sort of free and unrestricted online
availability within the OA framework can be economically feasible, offers to
any potential reader astonishing power to “find and make use” of relevant
literature, while it provides authors and their works massive new visibility,
readership and impact  20  .

The 5G ESSENCE will also produce specific outcomes in terms of implementation
of individual software components which will be used in scientific
publications together with the data collected during experiments done within
the complete Project’s lifetime. To make software and data used in
publications available to the related (academic, business or other) community,
such software and data will be made open source or subject to very flexible
licensing and available whereby different channels. This potentially includes
the creation of repositories in open source code management tools - _such as
GitHub, or an “equivalent” one_ \- where to store the software developed which
is in a “mature” stage and updated from time to time, as new stable releases
of the code are available. Furthermore, since the 5G ESSENCE consortium aims
to maximise the impact inside the related SDN and NFV communities, the
software will be also made available inside open source initiatives  21  (for
example: OpenDayLight  22  , OPNFV  23  , etc.) whenever possible and
according to the provisions of both the GA and the CA documents. With this
kind of intended policy, the 5G ESSENCE consortium will disseminate Project
_based_ achievements to an audience as wide as possible, and will so allow
other parties to replicate the results presented in scientific publications.

Open Access refers to the practice of granting free Internet access to
research articles. This model is deemed to be an efficient system for broad
dissemination of and access to research data  24  and publications, which can
indeed accelerate scientific progress.

Although this model foresees that the knowledge dissemination is on free-of-
cost basis, this does not mean that the publication process is entirely free
of costs. The underlying philosophy, in fact, focuses on the shift of costs
from the reader to the author/publisher, in order to readily access and
disseminate publications.

**Open Access (OA)** can be defined  25  as the practice of providing on-line
access to scientific information that is “free of charge” to the end-user and
that is re-usable. The term “scientific” refers to all academic disciplines;
in the context of research and innovation activities, “scientific information”
can refer to: _(a)_ Peer- _reviewed_

scientific research articles (published in scholarly journals)  26  , or;
_(b)_ research data (i.e.: data underlying publications, curated data and/or
raw data).

Establishing open access as a valuable practice ideally requires the active
commitment of each and every discrete/individual producer of scientific
knowledge. Open access contributions include original scientific research
results, raw data and metadata, source materials, digital representations of
pictorial and graphical materials and scholarly multimedia material.

Open access contributions have to satisfy/fulfil two conditions  27  : (i) The
author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a
free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and a license to copy, use,
distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute
derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject
to proper attribution of authorship (community standards, will continue to
provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible
use of the published work, as they do now), as well as the right to make small
numbers of printed copies for their personal use, _and_ ; (ii) A complete
version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the
permission as stated above, in an appropriate standard electronic format is
deposited (and thus published) in at least one online repository using
suitable technical standards (such as the Open Archive definitions) that is
supported and maintained by an academic institution, scholarly society,
government agency, or other well established organization that seeks to enable
open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term
archiving.

The philosophy underlying the open access model is to introduce barrier-free,
cost-free access to scientific literature for readers  28  . In the past,
restrictions to free access of scientific publications were accepted, as the
subscription model was the only practically possible option, as printed
journals were the only means of disseminating validated scientific results  53
. While open access advocates free _dissemination_ of scientific knowledge,
this does not necessarily imply that no costs are involved in the publishing
process. Open access does not indulge in the illusion of an entirely cost-free
publication process. Communication of scientific results has always been paid
out of research funds, one way or another, either directly or indirectly, via
institutional overhead charges. That does not change in an open access model.

The OA model focuses on taking the burden of costs off the subscriber’s
shoulders, often by shifting the costs from the reader to the author, so that
payment for the process of peer review and publishing is made on behalf of the
author, rather than the reader.

Conformant to the OA- _based_ approach, the following options can be
distinguished: _“Open access to scientific publications_ which is discussed in
section _(i)_ below _,_ and; _“open access to research data”_ as discussed in
_sections 4.1 and 4.2,_ below:

##  4.1 Open Access to Scientific Publications

**_Open access to scientific publications_ ** refers to “free-of-charge”
online access for any potential user. Legally binding definitions of “open
access” and “access” in this context do not practically exist, but
authoritative definitions of open access can be found in key political
declarations on this subject, for instance the _Budapest Declaration of 2002_
( __http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read_ _ )  or; the _Berlin
Declaration 54  of 2003 _ (
__http://openaccess.mpg.de/67605/berlin_declaration_engl.pdf_ _ )  .

These definitions describe “access” in the context of open access as including
not only basic elements such as “the right to read, download and print”, but
also “the right to copy, distribute, search, link, crawl, and mine”.

There are two main routes towards open access to publications  55  :

  * **Self-archiving / “green” open access** means that the published article or the final peer- _reviewed_ manuscript is archived (deposited) by the author -or an authorized representative in case of multiple authors- in an online repository before, alongside or after its publication. Some publishers request that open access be granted only after an “embargo” period has elapsed  56  . 

  

The “green” open access is the practice of placing a version of an author’s
manuscript into a repository, making it freely accessible for everyone. The
version that can be deposited into a repository is dependent on the funder or
publisher. Unlike gold open access, the copyright for these articles usually
“sits” with the publisher of, or the society affiliated with, the title and
there are restrictions as to how the work can be reused. There are individual
self-archiving policies by journal or publisher that determine the terms and
conditions, e.g. which article version may be used and when the article can be
made openly accessible in the repository (also called an embargo period). A
list of publishers’ self-archiving policies can be found on the SHERPA/RoMEO
database  57  .

Scholars and researchers need the tools and the assistance to deposit their
refereed journal articles in open electronic archives, a practice usually
called as _“self-archiving”_ . When these archives conform to standards
created by the Open Archives Initiative  58  , then search engines and other
tools can “treat the separate archives as one”. Users then need not know which
archives exist or where they are located in order to find and make use of
their contents.

  * **Open access publishing / “gold” open access** means that an article is immediately provided in open access mode as published. In this specific model, the payment of publication costs is shifted away from readers paying via subscriptions  59  . The business model most often encountered is based on one-off payments by authors. These costs (often referred to as Article Processing Charges - APCs) can usually be borne by the university or research institute to which the researcher is affiliated, or to the funding agency supporting the 

  

54

Following to the spirit of the _Declaration of the Budapest Open Access
Initiative_ , the _Berlin Declaration_ _on Open Access to Knowledge in the
Sciences and Humanities_ has been made in order to promote the Internet as a
functional instrument for a global scientific knowledge base and human
reflection and to specify measures which research policy makers, research
institutions, funding agencies, libraries, archives and museums need to
consider for such purpose. According to the proposed framework, new
possibilities of knowledge dissemination not only through the classical form
but also and increasingly through the open access paradigm via the Internet
had to be supported. “Open access” has been defined as a comprehensive source
of human knowledge and cultural heritage that has been approved by the
scientific community. In order to realize the vision of a global and
accessible representation of knowledge, the future Web needed to be
sustainable, interactive, and transparent. Content and software tools needed
to be openly accessible and compatible.

55

See, in a “joint” approach the discussion proposed in:

Harnad, S., Brody, T., Vallières, F., Carr, L., et _al._ (2008): The
Access/Impact Problem and the Green and Gold Roads to Open Access: Un Update.
_Elsevier Serials Review, 34_ (1), pp.36-40.

Also see the framework presented within:

Harnad, S., and Brody, T. (2004, June): Comparing the Impact of open Access
(OA) vs. Non-OA Articles in the Same Journals. _D-Lib Magazine, 10_ (6).
Available at:  __http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june04/harnad/06harnad.html_ _ .

56

_**Green OA** _ foresees that the authors deposit (self-archive) the final
peer-reviewed manuscript in a repository (open archive) to be made available
in open access mode, usually after an embargo period allowing them to recoup
the publishing costs (e.g. via subscriptions or pay per download).

57

For further details, see  : __http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php?la=en
&fIDnum=|&mode=advanced _ _ .

58

For more relevant information see, for example  :
__http://www.openarchives.org_ _ .

59

For this other model named _**Gold OA** _ , costs of publishing are covered
usually by the publisher so that research articles are immediately available
free of charge upon publication.

research. In other cases, the costs of open access publishing are covered by
subsidies or other funding models.

Gold OA makes the final version of an article freely and permanently
accessible for everyone, immediately after publication. Copyright for the
article is retained by the authors and most of the permission barriers are
removed. Gold OA articles can be published either in fully OA journals (where
all the content is published OA) or hybrid journals (a subscription- _based_
journal that offers an OA option which authors can chose if they wish). An
overview of fully OA journals can be found in the Directory of Open Access
Journals  29  (DOAJ). Scholars and researchers need the means to initiate a
new generation of journals committed to open access and, _consequently_ , to
help existing journals that elect _to make the transition to open access_ .
Since journal articles should be disseminated as widely as possible, such new
journals will no longer invoke copyright to restrict access to and use of the
material they publish. Instead, they will use copyright and other tools to
ensure permanent open access to all the articles they publish. Because price
is a barrier to access, these new journals will not charge subscription or
access fees, and will turn to other methods for covering their expenses. There
are many alternative sources of funds for this purpose, including the
foundations and governments that fund research, the universities and
laboratories that employ researchers, endowments set up by discipline or
institution, friends of the cause of open access, profits from the sale of
add-ons to the basic texts, funds freed up by the demise or cancellation of
journals charging traditional subscription or access fees, or even
contributions from the researchers themselves. There is no need to favor one
of these solutions over the others for all disciplines or nations, and no need
to stop looking for other alternatives.

_**Hybrid model** _ – While several existing scientific publishers have
converted to the open access publishing model, such conversion may not be
viable for every publisher. A third _("hybrid")_ model of open access
publishing has therefore arisen. In the hybrid model, publishers offer authors
the choice of paying the article processing fee and having their article made
freely available online, or they can elect not to pay and then only journal
subscribers will have access to their article. The hybrid model offers
publishers of traditional subscription-based journals a way to experiment with
open access and allow the pace of change to be dictated by the authors
themselves  30  .

Public institutions are also very interested in the OA system. The European
Commission is strongly committed to optimising the impact of publicly-funded
scientific research, both at European level ( _FP7, Horizon 2020_ ) and at
Member State level  31  ,  32  .

Indeed, the European Commission acts as the coordinator between member states
and within the European Research Area (ERA) in order for results of publicly-
funded research to be disseminated more broadly and faster, to the benefit of
researchers, innovative industry and citizens. OA can also boost the European
research, and in particular offers SMEs access to the latest research for
utilisation. The central underlying reasons for an OA system are that:

  * The results of publicly-funded research should be publicly available; 

  

  * OA enables research findings to be shared with the wider public, helping to create a knowledge society across Europe composed of better-informed citizens; 

  

  * OA enhances knowledge transfer to sectors that can directly use that knowledge to produce better goods and services. Many constituencies outside the research community itself can make use of research results. These include small and medium-sized companies that do not have access to the research through company libraries, organizations of professional (legal practices, family doctor practices, etc.), the education sector and so forth. 

  

**_Misconceptions about open access to scientific publications:_ ** In the
context of research funding, open access requirements in no way imply an
explicit obligation to publish results. The decision on whether or not to
proceed to a publication, lies entirely with the grantees. Open access becomes
an issue only _if_ publication is elected as a means of further realizing
dissemination. Moreover, OA does not interfere with the decision to exploit
research results commercially, e.g. through patenting. Indeed, the decision on
whether to publish open access must come after the more general decision on
whether to publish directly or to first seek protection. More information on
this issue is available in the European IPR Helpdesk  33  fact sheet
_“Publishing vs. patenting”_ 65  . This is also illustrated in _**Figure 3** _
, below, showing open access to scientific publication and research data in
the wider context of dissemination and exploitation  34  .

**Figure 3:** Open access to scientific publication and research data in the
wider context of dissemination and exploitation

##  4.2 Open Access to Research Data

**Open access to research data** refers to the right to access and re-use
digital research data under the terms and conditions set out in the Grant
Agreement.

Open Access and Open Access to research data are well aligned concepts related
to enabling access to publicly funded research.

Research data is whatever is produced in research or evidences its outputs.
According to the Europeasn Commission, the term “research data” refers to
information, in particular facts or numbers, collected to be examined and
considered and as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation  35  .

However while research data may generally be quantitative data, such as
numeric facts and statistics, it may also take the form of qualitative data
such as interview transcripts, or digital content including images and video,
and it tends to be discipline specific. The uniting factor is that research
data is not published research output. It is the raw material that leads to
research insights and as such it ultimately contributes to our combined stock
of knowledge. It is not only an incredibly important resource but essential
for academic progress.

In a research context, possible examples of data may comprise statistics,
results of experiments, measurements, observations resulting from fieldwork,
survey results, interview recordings and images. The focus is primarily upon
research data that is available in digital form.

Openly accessible research data can typically be accessed, mined, exploited,
reproduced and disseminated free of charge for the user.

For anyone working on a research project, managing the data produced is an
essential part of research practice that ensures research integrity. Good
research data management makes for good data, good researchers and good
research.

Public institutions are also very interested in the OA system  36  . The
European Commission is strongly committed to optimising the impact of
publicly-funded scientific research, both at European level (FP7, Horizon
2020) and at Member State level  37  . Indeed, the European Commission acts as
the coordinator between member states and within the European Research Area
(ERA) in order for results of publicly-funded research to be disseminated more
broadly and faster, to the benefit of researchers, innovative industry and
citizens. OA can also boost the European research, and in particular offers
SMEs access to the latest research for utilisation.

**The central underlying reasons for an OA system are that:**

  * The results of publicly- _funded_ research should be publicly available; 

  

  * OA enables research findings to be shared with the wider public, helping to create a knowledge society across Europe composed of better-informed citizens; 

  

  * OA enhances knowledge transfer to sectors that can directly use that knowledge to produce better goods and services. Many constituencies outside the research community itself can make use of research results. These include small and medium-sized companies that do not have access to the research through company libraries, organizations of professional (legal practices, family doctor practices, etc.), the education sector and so forth  38  . 

  

##  4.3 The European Approach and 5G ESSENCE within

In the 2012 Communication “ _Towards better access to scientific information_
”  39  the European Commission announced that it would “ _provide a framework
and encourage Open Access to research data in Horizon 2020_ ”. In recent years
the EC have been driving change in this area fueled by important research
reports such as the _2010 Riding the Wave_ 40  which outlined a series of
policy recommendations on how Europe could gain from the rising tide of
scientific data. A subsequent follow-up report entitled as “ _The Data
Harvest: How sharing research data can yield knowledge, jobs and growth”_ 41
targeted policy makers in particular, and offered a warning on _how Europe
must act now to secure its standing in future data markets_ . In response to
growing recognition of the need to better manage and share research data the
_Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in
Horizon 2020_ 42  acknowledge that “ _information already paid for by the
public purse should not be paid for again each time it is accessed or used,
and that it should benefit European companies and citizens to the full_ ”.

Open Access to research data is a high priority for the European Commission.
The term _Open Research Data_ (as a subset of the broader term _Open Data_ )
becomes relevant here. To clarify, when we at Open Knowledge talk about Open
Data the term “open” has a specific meaning as defined in the _Open
Definition_ 43  which sets out principles that define “openness” in relation
to data and content.

“ _Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose
(subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness)_ ”.
The _Horizon2020_ documentation supports this definition by stating that
openly accessible research data “ _can typically be accessed, mined,
exploited, reproduced and disseminated, free of charge for the user_ ”.

To ensure that projects the European Commission funds become party to opening
up research data Horizon2020 has launched an Open Data Pilot.

Full details are provided in the aforementioned _Guidelines on Data Management
in Horizon 2020 76  _ . This document helps _Horizon 2020_ beneficiaries make
their research data _findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR)_
44  , to ensure it is soundly managed. Good research data management is not a
goal in itself, but rather the key conduit leading to knowledge discovery and
innovation, and to subsequent data and knowledge integration and reuse.

The Commission is running a flexible pilot under Horizon 2020 called the _Open
Research Data pilot_ (ORD pilot). The ORD pilot aims to improve and maximise
access to and re-use of research data generated by _Horizon 2020_ projects and
takes into account the need to balance openness and protection of scientific
information, commercialisation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), privacy
concerns, security as well as data management and preservation questions.

Under the revised version of the 2017 Work Programme, the _Open Research Data
pilot_ has been extended to cover all the thematic areas of _Horizon 2020_ .

The ORD pilot applies primarily to the data needed to validate the results
presented in scientific publications. Other data can also be provided by the
beneficiaries on a voluntary basis, as stated in their Data Management Plans.
Costs associated with open access to research data, can be claimed as eligible
costs of any Horizon 2020 grant  45  .

The 5G ESSENCE project intends to participate in the _H2020 Open Research Data
Pilot_ , which well compliments the views of the consortium on open access,
open source, and on providing a transparent view of the scientific process,
particularly relevant in science driven by public funds. To participate in
this initiative, a Deliverable consisting of a first draft of the projects
Data Management Plan (DMP) will be produced in month M6 of the Project by WP8
(Deliverable, D8.2), and further evolved as the Project goes on.

Data generated by the Project will mostly consist of measurements and traffic
data from various simulations, emulations in the CESC, Edge DC and CESCM
platforms, and the proof of concept (PoC) experimentation in the 5G ESSENCE
testbeds. Without going into full details of the DMP here, there are several
standards that can be used to store such data as well as providing the meta-
data necessary for third parties. The overall goal is to use, _as much as
possible_ , not only open formats to store the data but also open source
software to provide the scripts and other meta-data necessary to re-use it.

Similar to the software generated by the Project, some of the data generated
may pertain to components, software, or figures considered as confidential by
one or more of the partners. The particular data affected by this will be
described in the DMP and the reasons for maintaining confidentiality will be
provided.

5G ESSENCE will consider using OpenAIRE  46  (in cooperation with re3data.org)
to select the proper open access repository and/or deposit publications for
its research results storage, allowing also for easy linking with the EU-
_funded_ project.

This will increase the accessibility to the obtained results by a wider
community, which can be further enhanced by including the repository in
registries of scientific repositories such as DataCite  47  and Databib  48  .
These are the most popular registries for digital repositories and along with
_re3data.org_ 49  , they are collaborating to provide open data. All issues
related to data management (Data Types, Formats, Standards and Capture
Methods, Ethics and Intellectual Property, Access, Data Sharing and Reuse,
Resourcing, Deposit and Long-Term Preservation, Short-Term Storage) will be
defined and described in detail in Section 5.

#  5 Data Management Plan

##  5.1 European Community Strategic Framework for DMP

The European Commission has early recognised that research data is as
important as publications  83  . It therefore announced in 2012 that it would
experiment with open access to research data  84  . Broader and more rapid
access to scientific papers and data will make it easier for researchers and
businesses to build on the findings of public-funded research  85  .

As a first step, the Commission has decided to make open access to scientific
publications a general principle of _Horizon 2020_ , the EU's Research &
Innovation funding programme for 2014-2020  86  . In particular, as of the
year 2014, all articles produced with funding from _Horizon 2020_ had to be
accessible according to the following options:

  * Articles had either immediately to be made accessible online by the publisher (“Gold” open access) - up-front publication costs can be eligible for reimbursement by the European Commission; or 

  

  * researchers had to make their articles available through an open access repository no later than six months (12 months for articles in the fields of social sciences and humanities) after publication (“Green” open access). The Commission has also recommended that Member States take a similar approach to the results of research funded under their own domestic programmes  87  . This will boost Europe's innovation capacity and give citizens quicker access to the benefits of scientific discoveries. Intelligent processing of data is also essential for addressing societal challenges. 

  

The _Pilot on Open Research Data in Horizon 2020_ 88  does for scientific
information what the _Open Data Strategy_ 89  does for public sector
information: It aims to improve and maximise access to and re-use of research
data generated by projects for the benefit of society and the economy.

The _G8 definition of_ _Open Data 90  _ states that _data should be easily
discoverable, accessible, assessable, intelligible, useable, and wherever
possible interoperable to specific quality standards, while at the same time
respecting concerns in relation to privacy, safety, security and commercial
interests 91  _ .

The 5G ESSENCE Project intends to participate in the _H2020 Open Research Data
Pilot 92  _ , which well compliments Project’s views on Open Access, open
source  93  , and providing a transparent view of the scientific process,
particularly relevant in science driven by public funds.

83

European Commission (2012, July). _Communication on “Towards better access to
scientific information: Boosting the benefits of public investments in
research” [COM(2012) 401 final, 17.07.2012]._ Available at:

__ http://ec.europa.eu/research/c  ience-society/document_library/pdf_06/era-
communication-towards-better-access-toscientific-information_en.pdf _ _ . 84

European Commission (2012, July). Press Release IP/12/790 - _Scientific data:
open access to research results will boost Europe's innovation capacity.
Brussels, July 2012._ Available at  : __http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_IP-12-790_en.htm_ _ .

85

Among the actions taken under the _“Digital Agenda for Europe” (COM(2010) 245
final/2),_ publicly funded research had to be widely disseminated through open
access publication of scientific data and papers.

86

European Commission (2012, July). Commission Recommendation of 17.07.2012 on
_“An accompanying Commission Recommendation sets out a complete policy
framework for improving access to, and preservation of, scientific
information” [C(2012) 4890 final, 17.07.2012]_ .

87

The goal was for 60% of European publicly- _funded_ research articles to be
available under open access by 2016.

88

European Commission (2013, December). Press release IP/13/1257 - _Commission
launches pilot to open up publicly funded research data. Brussels,
16.12.2013._ Available at  : __http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_IP-13-1257_en.htm_ _ .

89

See, _for example_ : European Commission (2011, December): _Communication on
“Open data-An engine for innovation, growth and transparent governance”
[COM(2011) 882 final, 12.12.2011]._

90

G8 Science Ministers’ Statement, available at:
__https://www.gov.uk/government/news/g8-science-ministers-statement_ _ .  UK
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, _June 13, 2013._

91

To ensure successful adoption by scientific communities, open scientific
research data principles will need to be underpinned by an appropriate policy
environment, including recognition of researchers fulfilling these principles,
and appropriate digital infrastructure. 92

Valuable information produced by researchers in many EU- _funded_ projects
will be shared freely as a result of a _Pilot on Open Research Data_ in
_Horizon 2020_ . Researchers in projects participating in the pilot are asked
to make the underlying data needed to validate the results presented in
scientific publications and other scientific information available for use by
other researchers, innovative industries and citizens. This will lead to
better and more efficient science and improved transparency for citizens and
society. It will also contribute to economic growth through open innovation.
More

This Pilot is an opportunity to see how different disciplines share data in
practice and to understand remaining obstacles, as well as part of the
Commission’s commitment to openness in _Horizon 2020 94  _ .

Projects participating in the _Pilot on Open Research Data in Horizon 2020_
are required to deposit the research data described as below  95  :

  * The data, including associated metadata  96  , needed to validate the results presented in scientific publications as soon as possible; 

  

  * Other data  97  , including associated metadata, as specified and within the deadlines laid down in a _**data management plan (DMP) 98  ** _ . 

  

Projects should deposit preferably in a research data repository and take
measures to enable third parties to access, mine, exploit, reproduce and
disseminate — free of charge for any user  99  .

_**Data Management Plans (DMPs)** _ are a _key element_ of good data
management. A DMP describes the data management life cycle for the data to be
collected, processed and/or generated by a _Horizon 2020_ project. As part of
making research data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR)
100  , a DMP should include information on:

  * The handling of research data during and after the end of the related project; 

  

  * what data will be collected, processed and/or generated; 

  

  * which methodology and standards will be applied; 

  

  * whether data will be shared/made open access, _and_ ; 

  

  * how data will be curated and preserved (including after the end of the related project). 

  

The **main requirements of the _Open Data Pilot_ ** are listed as follows:

  * Develop (and update) a Data Management Plan; 

  

  * Deposit in a research data repository; 

  

  * Make it possible for third parties to access, mine, exploit, reproduce and disseminate data – free of charge for any user; 

  

  * Provide information on the tools and instruments needed to validate the results (or provide the tools). 

  

To participate in this initiative, the present _Deliverable D8.2_ consisting
of a first draft of the project’s Data Management Plan has been produced in
month 6 (M6) of the Project by WP8, and further evolved as the Project goes
on.

information about the related Commission’s initiative can be found at:
__http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-131257_en.htm_ _ .

93

Generally, open source refers to a computer program in which the source code
is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its
original design. Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where
programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the
community. Typically this is not the case, and code is merely released to the
public under some license. Others can then download, modify, and publish their
version (fork) back to the community. Today you find more projects with forked
versions than unified projects worked by large teams. For further reading see,
for example: Lakhani, K.R., von Hippel, E. (2003, June):  How Open Source
Software Works: Free User to User Assistance.  _Research Policy 32(6),_
pp.923-943. [ _ _doi_ : _10.1016/S0048-7333(02)00095-1_ ]  _ as well as other
informative references i  n __https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_ _ .

94

The _Pilot on Open Research Data_ in _Horizon 2020_ will give the Commission a
better understanding of what supporting infrastructure is needed and of the
impact of limiting factors such as security, privacy or data protection or
other reasons for projects opting out of sharing. It will also contribute
insights in how best to create incentives for researchers to manage and share
their research data. The Pilot will be monitored throughout _Horizon 2020_
with a view to developing future Commission policy and EU research funding
programs.

95

__https://www.openaire.eu/h2020-oa-data-pilot_ _ .

96

“Associated metadata” refers to the metadata describing the research data
deposited.

97

For instance, curated data not directly attributable to a publication, or raw
data.

98

A DMP may be also referred to as a “Data Sharing Plan”.

99

For example, the _**OpenAIRE project** _ provides a _**Zenodo repository** _ (
__http://www.zenodo.org_ _ )  that could be used for depositing data. Also see
OpenAIRE FAQ (  __http://www.zenodo.org/faq_ _ )  for general information on
Open Access and European Commission funded research.

100

Also see: Wilkinson, M.D., Dumontier, M., et _al._ (2016, March) The FAIR
Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. _Sci. Data
3,_ 160018\. Available at  : __http://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201618_ _ .

The DMP needs to be **updated** over the course of the project whenever
significant changes arise, such as (but not limited to): ▪ New data;

  * changes in consortium policies (e.g. new innovation potential, decision to file for a patent), _and_ ; 

  

  * changes in consortium composition and external factors (e.g. new consortium members joining or old members leaving). 

  

The DMP should be updated as a minimum in time with the periodic
evaluation/assessment of the

Project  50  .

##  5.2 DMP in the Conceptual Framework of the _H2020_

All project proposals submitted to " _Research and Innovation actions_ " as
well as " _Innovation actions_ " had to include a section on research data
management which is evaluated under the criterion “Impact”. Where relevant,
applicants had to provide a short, general outline of their policy for data
management, including the following issues listed as _(i)-(iv):_

  1. _What types of data will the project generate/collect?_

  

  2. _What standards will be used?_

  

  3. _How will this data be exploited and/or shared/made accessible for verification and re-use? (If data cannot be made available, this has to be explained why)._

  

  4. _How will this data be curated and preserved?_

  

  

The described policy should reflect the current state of Consortium Agreements
regarding data management and be consistent with those referring to
exploitation and protection of results. The data management section can be
considered also as a checklist for the future and as a reference for the
resource and budget allocations related to data management.

Data Management Plans (DMPs) are introduced in the _Horizon 2020_ Work
Programs according to the following concept: “ _A further new element in
Horizon 2020 is the use of Data Management Plans (DMPs) detailing what data
the project will generate, whether and how it will be exploited or made
accessible for verification and reuse, and how it will be curated and
preserved. The use of a Data Management Plan is required for projects
participating in the Open Research Data Pilot. Other projects are invited to
submit a Data Management Plan if relevant for their planned research”._

Projects taking part in the _Pilot on Open Research Data_ are required to
provide a first version of the DMP as an early deliverable within the first
six months of the respective project. Projects participating in the above
Pilot as well as projects who submit a DMP on a voluntary basis because it is
relevant to their research should ensure that this deliverable is mentioned in
the proposal. Since DMPs are expected to mature during the corresponding
project, more developed versions of the plan can be included as additional
deliverables at later stages. The purpose of the DMP is to support the data
management life cycle for all data that will be collected, processed or
generated by the project. References to research data management are included
in Article 29.3 of the _Model Grant Agreement_ (article applied to all
projects participating in the _Pilot on Open Research Data in Horizon 2020_ .

A _**Data Management and Sharing Plan** _ 102  is usually submitted where a
project -or a proposal- involves the generation of datasets that have clear
scope for wider research use and hold significant long-term value  103  . In
short, plans are required in situations where the data outputs “form a
resource” from which researchers and other users would be able to generate
additional benefits. This would include all projects where the primary goal is
to create a database resource. It would also include other research generating
significant datasets that could be shared for added value - for example, those
where the data has clear utility for research questions beyond those that the
data generators are seeking to address. In particular, it would cover datasets
that might form "community resources" as defined by the _ Fort Lauderdale
Principles  1  04  _ and th  e _Toronto statement 1  _ _ 05  _ . As noted in
the _Toronto statement_ , community resources will typically have the
following attributes: (i) Largescale (requiring significant resources over
time); (ii) broad utility; (iii) creating reference datasets, and;
(iv)associated with community buy-in. For studies generating small-scale and
limited data outputs, a data management and sharing plan will not normally be
required. Generally, the expected approach for projects of this type would be
to make data available to other researchers on publication, and where possible
to deposit data in appropriate data repositories in a timely manner. While a
formal data management and sharing plan need not be submitted in such cases,
applicants may find the guidance below helpful in planning their approaches
for managing their data.

102

See, for example: “ _Guidance for researchers: Developing a data management
and sharing plan”._ Available at:  __http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-
us/Policy/Spotlight-issues/Data-sharing/Guidance-for-researchers/index.htm_ _
.

103

Also see:  Framework for creating a data management plan,  ICPRS, University
of Michigan, US. Available at:

__http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/datamanagement/dmp/framework.htm_
_ .

104

For more related information, see:  __http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-
us/Publications/Reports/Biomedicalscience/WTD003208.htm_ _ .

105

Toronto International Data Release Workshop Authors (2009): _Nature_ _461,_
168-170 (September 10, 2009) [ __doi:10.1038/461168a_ _ ]. Available at  :
__http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7261/full/461168a.html_ _ .

##  5.3 Principles and Guidelines for Developing a DMP

A DMP as a document outlining how research data will be handled during a
research project, and after it is completed, is very important in all aspects
for projects participating in the H _orizon 2020 Open Research Data Pilot_ as
well as almost any other research project. Especially where the project
participates in the above mentioned Pilot, it should always include clear
descriptions and rationale for the access regimes that are foreseen for
collected data sets  106  .

This principle is further clarified in the following paragraph of the Model
Grant Agreement: “ _As an exception, the beneficiaries do not have to ensure
open access to specific parts of their research data if the achievement of the
action's main objective, as described in Annex I, would be jeopardised by
making those specific parts of the research data openly accessible. In this
case, the data management plan must contain the reasons for not giving
access”._

A DMP describes the data management life cycle for all data sets that will be
collected, processed or generated by the corresponding research project. It is
a document outlining how research data will be handled during a research
project, and even after the project is completed, describing what data will be
collected, processed or generated and following what methodology and
standards, whether and how this data will be shared and/or made open, and how
it will be curated and preserved  107  . The DMP is not a “fixed” document;
actually, it evolves and gains more precision and substance during the
lifespan of the project  108  .

The first version of the DMP is expected to be delivered within the first 6
months of the respective project. This DMP deliverable should be in compliance
with the template provided by the Commission, as presented in the following
_Section 5.3.1_ . More elaborated versions of the DMP can be delivered at
later stages of the related project. The DMP would need to be updated at least
by the mid-term and final review to fine-tune it to the data generated and the
uses identified by the consortium since not all data or potential uses are
clear from the start. New versions of the DMP should be created whenever
important changes to the project occur, due to inclusion of new data sets,
changes in consortium policies or external factors. Suggestions for additional
information in these more elaborated versions are provided below in the
subsequent _Section 5.3.2_ **.**

DMPs should follow relevant national and international recommendations for
best practice and should be prepared in consultation with relevant
institutional and disciplinary stakeholders. They should anticipate
requirements throughout the research activity, and should be subject to
regular review and amendment as part of normal research project management.

###  5.3.1 Template for DMP

The purpose of the Data Management Plan (DMP) is to provide an analysis of the
main elements of the data management policy that will be used by the
applicants with regard to all the datasets that will be generated by the
related project  109  . The DMP is not a fixed document, but evolves during
the lifespan of the corresponding project.

The DMP should address  110  the points below on a dataset by dataset basis
and should reflect the current status of reflection within the consortium
about the data that will be produced  111  .

▪ **Data set reference and name**

106

UK Data Archive (2011, May): _Managing and Sharing Data. Best Practice for
Researchers_ . University of Essex, UK. Available at  : __http://www.data-
archive.ac.uk/media/2894/managingsharing.pdf_ _ .

107

Brunt, J. (2011): _How to Write a Data Management Plan for a National Science
Foundatio_ n (NSF) Proposal. Available at:

__http://intranet2.lternet.edu/node/3248_ _ .  108

Support on research data management for projects funded under _Horizon 2020_
has been planned through projects funded under the _Research Infrastructures
Work Programme 2014-15_ .

109

An interesting conceptual approach is also proposed in: Donnelly, M. & Jones,
S. (2011): _DCC Checklist for a Data Management Plan_ v3.0. Digital Curation
Centre (DCC), UK. Available at  : __http://www.dcc.ac.uk/webfm_send/431_ _ .

110

Also see: Jones, S. (2011). “How to Develop a Data Management and Sharing
Plan”. _DCC How-to Guides._ Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Available
online  : __http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides_ _ .

111

See the detailed approach proposed in:

__http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/datamanagement/dmp/elements.html_
_ .

Identifier for the data set to be produced.

 **Data set description**

Description of the data that will be generated or collected, its origin (in
case it is collected), nature and scale and to whom it could be useful, and
whether it underpins a scientific publication. Information on the existence
(or not) of similar data and the possibilities for integration and reuse
should also be included. Plans should cover all research data expected to be
produced as a result of a project or activity, from “raw” to “published”. They
may include, _inter-alia_ , details of: (i) An analysis of the gaps identified
between the currently available and required data for the research; (ii)
anticipated data volume; (iii) anticipated data type and formats including the
format of the final data; (iv) measures to assure data quality; (v) standards
(including metadata standards) and methodologies that will be adopted for data
collection and management, and why these have been selected; (vi) relationship
to data available from other sources, _and_ ; (vii) anticipated
further/secondary use(s) for the completed dataset(s).

A **survey of existing data relevant to the project** and a discussion of
whether and how these data will be integrated, is also an important part of
the related action.

**Formats** in which the data will be generated, maintained, and made
available, including a justification for the procedural and archival
appropriateness of those formats, are also a very important part of DMP.

▪ **Standards and metadata**

Reference to existing suitable standards of the discipline. If these do not
exist, an outline on how and what metadata will be created.

What disciplinary norms are to be adopted in the project? What is the data
about? Who created it and why? In what forms it is available? Metadata answers
such questions to enable data to be found and understood, ideally according to
the particular standards of the project-specific scientific discipline.

DMPs should specify the principles, standards and technical processes for data
management, retention and preservation that will be adopted. These may be
determined by the area of research and/or funder requirements. Processes
should be supported by appropriate standards addressing confidentiality and
information security, legal compliance, monitoring and quality assurance, data
recovery and data management reviews where suitable. In order to maximise the
potential for re-use of data, where possible, researchers should generate and
manage data using existing widely accepted formats and methodologies.

DMPs should provide suitable quality assurance concerning the extent to which
“raw” data may be modified. Where “raw” data are not to be retained, the
processes for obtaining “derived” data should be specified and conform to the
accepted procedures within the research field.

Researchers should ensure that appropriately structured metadata, using a
recognised or _de facto_ standard schema where these exist, describing their
research data are created and recorded in a timely manner. The metadata should
include information about regulatory and ethical requirements relating to
access and use. Protocols for the use, calibration and maintenance of
equipment, together with associated risk assessments, should be clearly
documented to ensure optimal performance and research data quality. Where
protocols change, they should be version controlled and the current version
should be available and readily accessible. Documentation may include:
Technical descriptions, code commenting; project-build guidelines; audit trail
supporting technical decisions; resource metadata. Not all types of
documentation will be relevant to all projects and the quantity of
documentation proposed should be proportionate to the anticipated value of the
data.

▪ **Data access and sharing**

Description of how data will be shared, including access procedures, embargo
periods (if any), outlines of technical mechanisms for dissemination and
necessary software and other tools for enabling re-use, and definition of
whether access will be widely open or restricted to specific groups.
Identification of the repository where data will be stored, if already
existing and identified, indicating in particular the type of repository
(institutional, standard repository for the discipline, etc.)  51  .

In case the dataset cannot be shared, the reasons for this should be mentioned
(e.g. ethical, rules of personal data, intellectual property, commercial,
privacy- _related_ , security- _related_ ).

By default as much of the resulting data as possible should be archived as
_Open Access_ . Therefore, legitimate reasons for not sharing resulting data
should be explained in the DMP.

Planning for data sharing should begin at the earliest stages of project
design and well in advance of beginning the research. Any potential issues
which could limit data sharing should be identified and mitigated from the
outset. Data management plans should therefore address how the research data
will be shared. Any reason for not eventually sharing data should be explained
with a justification citing for example legal, ethical, privacy or security
considerations.

  * The **audience** refers to the potential secondary users of the data. 

  

  * The **selection and retention periods** refer to a description of how data will be selected for archiving, how long the data will be held, and plans for eventual transition or termination of the data collection in the future. 

  

  * **Security** implicates for a description of technical and procedural protections for information, including confidential information, and how permissions, restrictions, and embargoes will be enforced. 

  

  * **Responsibility** implicates for names of the individuals responsible for data management in the research project. 

  

  * **Intellectual Property Rights** refer to entities and/or persons who will hold the intellectual property rights to the data, and how IP will be protected if necessary. Any copyright constraints (e.g., copyrighted data collection instruments) should be noted. 

  

  * **Archiving and preservation (including storage and backup)**

  

Description of the procedures that will be put in place for long-term
preservation of the data. Indication of how long the data should be preserved,
what is its approximated end volume, what the associated costs are and how
these are planned to be covered.

Funding bodies are keen to ensure that publicly funded research outputs can
have a positive impact on future research, for policy development, and for
societal change. They recognise that impact can take quite a long time to be
realised and, _accordingly_ , expect the data to be available for a suitable
period beyond the life of the project. It has to be pointed out that it is not
simply enough to ensure that the bits are stored, but also to consider the
usability of the project-specific data. In this respect, it has to be
considered to preserve software or any code produced to perform specific
analyses or to render the data as well as being clear about any proprietary or
open source tools that will be needed to validate and use the preserved data.
Data management plans should provide for all retained data and related
materials to be securely preserved in such a way as to allow them to be
accessed, understood and used by any others having appropriate authorization
in future.

Data held electronically should be backed up regularly and duplicate copies
held in alternative locations in a secure and accessible format where
appropriate.

  * **Ethics and privacy** refer to a discussion of how informed consent will be handled and how privacy will be protected, including any exceptional arrangements that might be needed to protect participant confidentiality, and other ethical issues that may arise. 

  

  * **Budget** correlates to the costs of preparing data and documentation for archiving and how these costs will be paid. Requests for funding may be included. 

  

  * **Data organization** refers to how the data will be managed during the project, with information about version control, naming conventions, etc. 

  

  * **Quality Assurance** refers to the corresponding and well-defined procedures for ensuring data quality during the related project. 

  

  * **Legal requirements** contains as listing of all relevant federal or funder requirements for data management and data sharing. 

  

###  5.3.2 Additional Guidance for DMP

This can be applied to any project that produces, collects or processes
research data, and is included as reference for elaborating DMPs in _Horizon
2020_ projects. This guide is structures as a series of questions that should
be ideally clarified for all datasets produced in the project.

Scientific research data should be easily:

#####  1\. Discoverable

DMP question: Are the data and associated software produced and/or used in the
project discoverable (and readily located), identifiable by means of a
standard identification mechanism (e.g. Digital Object Identifier)?

#####  2\. Accessible

DMP question: Are the data and associated software produced and/or used in the
project accessible and in what modalities, scope, licenses  52  (e.g.
licensing framework for research and education, embargo periods, commercial
exploitation, etc.)?

#####  3\. Assessable and intelligible

DMP question: Are the data and associated software produced and/or used in the
project assessable for and intelligible to third parties in contexts such as
scientific scrutiny and peer review (e.g. are the minimal datasets handled
together with scientific papers for the purpose of peer review, are data is
provided in a way that judgments can be made about their reliability and the
competence of those who created them)?

#####  4\. Useable beyond the original purpose for which it was collected

DMP question: Are the data and associated software produced and/or used in the
project useable by third parties even long time after the collection of the
data (e.g. is the data safely stored in certified repositories for long term
preservation and curation; is it stored together with the minimum software,
metadata and documentation to make it useful; is the data useful for the wider
public needs and usable for the likely purposes of non-specialists)?

#####  5\. Interoperable to specific quality standards

DMP question: Are the data and associated software produced and/or used in the
project interoperable allowing data exchange between researchers,
institutions, organizations, countries, etc. (e.g. adhering to standards for
data annotation, data exchange, compliant with available software
applications, and allowing recombinations with different datasets from
different origins)?

##  5.4 Structuring of a 5G ESSENCE DMP

Different types of data raise very different considerations and challenges,
and there are significant differences between fields in terms of, for example,
the availability of repositories and level of established good practice for
data sharing.

Data generated by the Project will mostly consist of measurement- and traffic
data from various simulations, emulations in the CESC platform, and the proof
of concept (PoC) experimentation in the 5G ESSENCE test-bed(s) and related
scenarios of use.

Without going into full details of the DMP here, there are several standards
that can be used to store such data as well as providing the meta-data
necessary for third parties to utilise the data.

The overall goal is to as much as possible, use not only open formats to store
the data but also open source software to provide the scripts and other meta-
data necessary to re-use it.

Similar to the software generated by the Project, some of the data generated
may pertain to components, software, or figures considered as confidential by
one or more of the partners.

The particular data affected by this will be described in the DMP and the
reasons for maintaining confidentiality will be provided.

According to the discussion provided in the previous _Section 5.3_ , a
suitable Data Management Plan (DMP) includes the following major components,
as shown in _**Figure 4** _ , below:

**Figure 4:** Structure of a Data Management Plan (DMP)

For the case of the 5G ESSENCE Project, the context becomes as it appears in
_**Figure 5** _ , below:

**Figure 5:** Essential Components of the 5G ESSENCE Data Management Plan
(DMP)

In the following _Sections 5.4.1-5.4.5_ we discuss, one-by-one, the essential
characteristics -or “modules”- of the 5G ESSENCE DMP, based on the concept of
_**Figure 5** _ .

###  5.4.1 Data Set Reference and Naming

The following structure is proposed for 5G ESSENCE data set identifier:

_5G ESSENCE [Name]_[Type]_[Place]_[Date]_[Owner]_[Target User]_

Where we identify the following fields:

  * _“Name”_ is a short name for the data. 

  

  * _“Type”_ describes the type of data (e.g. code, publication, measured data). 

  

  * _“Place”_ describe the place the data were produced. 

  

  * _“Date”_ is the date in format “YYYY-MM-DD”. 

  

  * “Owner” is the owner or the owners of the data (if exist) 

  

  * _“Target user”_ is the target audience of the data (this is an optional identifier). 

  

  * _“_” (underscore)_ is used as the separator between the fields. 

  

For example, _“5G
ESSENCE_Field_Experiment_data_Athens_2017-10-31_OTE_Internal.dat”_ is a data
file from a field experiment in Athens, Greece that has been performed on
2017-10-31 and owned by the project partner (project coordinator) OTE with
extension .dat (MATLAB  53  ). More information about the data is provided in
the metadata (see the following section).

All the data fields in the identifier above, apart from the target user, are
mandatory. If one -or more owners- owner cannot be specified, then it should
be indicated as: _“Unspecified-owner”._

###  5.4.2 Data Set Description and Metadata

The previous _Section 5.4.1_ has defined a data set identifier. The data set
description is fundamentally an expanded description of the identifier with
more details.

The data set description that is organized as the metadata takes place in a
similar way as the case of the identifier, but with more details and,
depending on the file format, it will be either incorporated as a part of the
file or as a separate file (in its simplest form) in the text format. In the
case of the separate metadata file, it will have the same name with the added
suffix _“METADATA”._

For example, the metadata file name for the data file from the previous
section will appear as follows: _“5G
ESSENCE_Field_Experiment_data_Athens_2017-10-31_OTE_Internal_METADATA.txt”_ .

The Metadata file can also designate a number of files (e.g. a number of log
files). The 5G ESSENCE Project may thus consider a possibility to provide the
metadata in XML  54  or JSON  55  formats, if necessary for convenience of
parsing and further processing. The Project will develop several data types
related to the VNF (Virtual Network Function) Descriptors, NS (Network
Service) Descriptors, VNF Catalogues, etc., which will be specifically encoded
into the metadata format appropriately in order to have consistency in the
description and filtering of the data types.

The Project intends to share the datasets in an internally accessible
disciplinary repository, using descriptive metadata as required/provided by
that repository. Additional metadata to example test datasets can be offered
within separate XML-files.

Metadata can be made available in XML and JSON format. Keywords can be added
as notations in UML  56  and shall be modelled upon appropriate
specifications. The content can be similar to relevant data from compatible
devices and network protocols. Files and folders will be versioned and
structured by using a name convention consisting of project name, dataset
name, date, version and ID ( _see Section 5.4.1_ ).

All datasets are to be shared between the participants during the lifecycle of
the Project. Feedback from other participants and test implementations will
decide when the dataset should be made publicly available. When the datasets
support the framework defined by the 5G ESSENCE ontology, they will be made
public and presented in open access publications.

The 5G ESSENCE partners can use a variety of methods for exploitation and
dissemination of the data including:

  * Using data in further research activities; 

  

  * Developing, creating or marketing a product or process; 

  

  * Creating and providing a service, or; • Using data in standardisation activities. 

  

###  5.4.3 Data Sharing

5G ESSENCE will use the _zenodo.org_ repository for storing the related
Project data and a 5G ESSENCE account will be created for that purpose.

_Zenodo.org_ is a repository supported by CERN and the EU OpenAire project  57
; this is open, free, searchable and structured with flexible licensing
allowing for storing all types of data: datasets, images, presentations,
publications and software.

Researchers working for European funded projects can participate by depositing
their research output in a repository of their choice  58  ,  59  publish in a
participating Open Access journal, or deposit directly in the OpenAIRE
repository _Zenodo_ \- and indicating the project it belongs to in the
metadata  60  .

Dedicated pages per project are visible on the OpenAIRE portal. Project-
_based_ research output, whether it is publications, datasets or project
information is accessible through the OpenAIRE portal. Extra functionalities
are also offered too, such as statistics, reporting tools and widgets – making
OpenAIRE a useful support service for researchers, coordinators and project
managers. On this portal, each project has a dedicated page featuring: (i)
Project information; (ii) App. & Widget box  61  ; (iii) Publication list;
(iv) Datasets, _and_ ; (v) Author information.

In addition to that we also identify the following beneficial features:

  * The repository has backup and archiving capabilities. 

  

  * The repository allows for integration github.com where the Project code will be stored. GitHub provides a free and flexible tool for code developing and storage. 

  

  * _Zenodo_ assigns all publicly available uploads a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to make the upload easily -and uniquely- citable. 

  

All the above features make _Zenodo_ a good candidate as a _unified_
repository for all foreseen Project data (presentations, publications, code
and measurement data) coming from 5G ESSENCE.

Information on using _Zenodo_ by the Project partners with application to the
5G ESSENCE data will be circulated within the consortium and addressed within
the respective work package (WP8). The process of making the 5G ESSENCE data
public and publishable at the repository will follow the procedures described
in the 5G ESSENCE Consortium Agreement.

For the code, the Project partners will follow the internal _“Open Source
Management Process”_ document. All the public data of the Project will be
openly accessible at the repository. Non-public data will be archived at the
repository using the “closed access” option.

###  5.4.4 Archiving and Preservation

The _Guidelines on Data Management in Horizon 2020_ require defining
procedures that will be put in place for long-term preservation of the data
and backup. The _Zenodo.org_ repository possesses these archiving capabilities
including backup and will be used to archive and preserve the 5G ESSENCE
Project data.

Further, the 5G ESSENCE Project data will also be stored in a project-managed
repository tool, called as _Sharepoint_ 62  _,_ which is managed by the
Project Coordinator. It has flexible live data storage capability. This
repository will directly link to the project website, where access information
to different data types can be provided. This will permit the users and
research collaborators to have easy and convenient access to the Project
research data.

###  5.4.5 Use of DMP within the Project

The 5G ESSENCE Project partners will use this plan as a reference for data
management (naming, providing metadata, storing and archiving) within the
project each time new project data are produced.

The 5G ESSENCE partners are introduced to the DMP and its use as part of WP8
activities. Relevant questions from partners will also be addressed within
WP8. The work package will also provide support to the project partners on
using _Zenodo_ as the data management tool. The DMP will be used as a live
document in order to update the project partners about the use, monitoring and
updates of the shared infrastructure.