#  1\. Executive Summary

This document is a deliverable of the FLASH Project which is funded by the
European Union’s H2020 Programme under Grant Agreement No. 766719\. This first
version of the Data Management Plan (DMP) describes the main elements of the
data management policy that will be used by the members of the Consortium with
regard to the data generated throughout the duration of the project.

The DMP is released in compliance with the H2020 FAIR (making data Findable,
Accessible and Interoperable) principle 103 and will be updated at months M18
and M36.

The data generated in FLASH will be mainly experimental and characterization
data, design data, computational modeling data, publications and project
documents and reports. FLASH will ensure open access to all the data necessary
to validate the research results of the project, including publications.
Research data linked to exploitable results will not be immediately available
in the open domain in case this may compromise its commercialization
prospects. If needed, embargo periods may be defined and specified in the
future versions of this document.

#  2\. Scope of the deliverable

The purpose of this document is to provide the plan for managing the data
generated and collected during the project. The DMP describes the data
management life cycle for all datasets to be collected, processed and/or
generated by FLASH. It covers:

  * the handling of research data during and after the project; 

  

  * what data will be collected, processed or generated; 

  

  * what methodology and standards will be applied; 

  

  * whether data will be shared/made open and how; 

  

  * how data will be curated and preserved Following the EU’s guidelines regarding the DMP. 

  

The DMP is a live document, updated during the project as illustrated in
Figure 1. We assume three incremental releases of the DMP: After the initial
release at M6, at months M18 and M36 (end of the project), respectively.

DMP Initial

release (M6)

DMP Second

release

(M18)

DMP Final

release

(M36)

**Figure 1: DMP Life Cycle.**

Any new version of the DMP will include all the information of the previous
release, together with the necessary updates/corrections. After the release
data of the new DMP, the information contained in the previous versions will
be considered obsolete.

#  3\. FLASH DMP

FLASH is a project that aims to develop a room-temperature THz laser
integrated on Si using CMOS technology-compatible processes and materials. The
laser, of quantum-cascade type, will be assembled using newly developed
conduction-band germanium-rich heterostructures. It will leverage on the non-
polar nature of Si and Ge crystal lattices to potentially enable room-
temperature operation and will emit > 1 mW power in the 1-10 THz range. The
members of the Consortium working on the project are: 1. Laboratory of
Mesoscopic Physics and Nanostructures-Department of Science, Roma Tre
University (Italy); 2. University of Glasgow-UGLA; 3. Innovations for high
performance microelectronics/Leibniz-Institute-IHP; 4. Quantum Optoelectronic
Group- Department of Physics ETH Zurich-ETH; 5. Nextnano GmbH-NXT.

FLASH vision of a DMP is inspired by the FAIR data Principles [1]. Therefore,
FLASH will consider the following approaches as far as applicable for
providing the open access to research data:

  * published data available on the Web (whatever format) under an open license; 

  

  * use of non-proprietary formats (e.g. CSV or TSV) 

  

  * use of Metadata and Fact sheet to denote data 

  

  * link data to other data to provide context 

  

The policy for open-access to the research data in FLASH will follow the basic
principle: “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” which can be
translated into two core principles:

  1. The generated research data should generally be made as widely accessible as possible in a timely and responsible manner; 

  

  2. The research process should not be impaired or damaged by the inappropriate release of such data. 

  

  

The FLASH consortium shall implement procedures that are in line with national
legislation of each consortium partner and in line with the European Union
standards. This DMP will apply to all data under FLASH consortium control. If
we shall strive to make data open, we cannot overrule limitations that partner
institutions put on data that they contribute (see e.g. the grant agreement).

The Governing Board (GB) will assess under strict criteria the nature of the
data and will give advice in order to establish their categorization as
**open** , **embargo,** or **restricted,** taking into account that the main
aim to disseminate the results of the research should be balanced with the
necessity to protect the interests of the partners involved in the project.

In that sense, data sets containing key information that could be patented for
commercial or industrial exploitation will be excluded for public distribution
and data sets containing key information that could be used by the research
team for publications will not be shared until the embargo period applied by
the publisher is over.

In particular, the open access to the research data can be denied in cases of:

  * the results are commercially or industrially exploited, 

  

  * incompatibility with confidentiality and security issues 

  

  * protection of personal data – privacy, 

  

  * the disclosure is likely to jeopardise the achievement of the main aim of the action, 

  

  * other legitimate reason. 

  

In the following, we define as **data set** either an individual file (such
the pdf file containing a deliverable or a report) or an ensemble of files
which are logically connected, like different measurements of the same sample
or sharing some physical observable. In the latter case, the files will be
bundled in a single zip file which will be labelled with a single metadata
etiquette.

All the data sets, regardless of their categorization, will be stored in the
consortium private-access data repository accessible through the SFTP/SSH
protocol. In addition, those categorized as open or embargo will be publicly
shared (in the case of embargo, after the embargo period is over) through the
public section of the project website  ( _www.flash-project.eu_ )  and ZENODO
(https://zenodo.org/), an open access repository for all fields of science
that allows uploading any kind of data file formats, which is recommended by
the Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe (OpenAIRE).

For all the data sets a Fact sheet will be filled by the authors in order to
summarize the characteristics of each data set to give a quick understanding
of the content of the data to anyone that reads it.

In order to make those data sets that are publicly shared as discoverable and
accessible as possible the following aspects will be considered:

  * The **Metadata** will have a key role in the improvement of the discoverability of what we upload to be open to the general public. Taking into account the huge amounts of information that can be found on the Internet, it is necessary to use a standard set of encoded labels in the websites where we store our data in order to make it easier for the search engines used by the browsers (such as Google, Bing, Yahoo…) to find it. There will be three types of metadata for each public data set: common metadata (related to the EU, H2020, name and number of the project), specific metadata (3 Keywords chosen by the authors of the data) and fact sheet metadata (related to the nature, origin, description, authors, potential interested groups, etc.). Considering the amount of data that will be foreseeably produced in the project, we shall gather similar data in compressed files, sharing common Fact sheet and Metadata (e.g. spectroscopic data of devices for different excitations) 

  

  * The **Standardization** of the names and formats of the files stored and uploaded will also improve the accessibility to the information, as we will describe in the following. 

  

The FLASH consortium will take, within the boundaries above stated, the
appropriate measures so that the research data generated in the project is
easily discoverable, accessible, assessable and intelligible, useable beyond
the original purpose for which it was collected and interoperable to specific
quality standards.

#  4\. Metadata and standardization in FLASH

In the context of this document, metadata is organized information labelling a
data set and encoded in the code of the websites in order to facilitate
discovery and reuse of the information by third parties.

Three types of metadata will be defined for each data set:

  1. **Fact sheet information** : As stated in the Section “5. Fact sheet information” of this document, for each data set the authors will have to fill a Fact sheet that allows anyone to quickly identify the content of the data set. 

  

  2. **Common metadata** : According to the “Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020” regarding the research data generated, the beneficiaries of the grants should follow Article 29.3 of the Grant Agreement which states that the bibliographic metadata must be in a standard format and must include all of the following terms: 

  

  

  1. European Union (EU); 

  

  2. Horizon 2020; 

  

  3. Name of the project: Far-Infrared Lasers Assembled using Silicon Heterostructures; d. Acronym: FLASH; 

  

  

e. Grant number: 766719.

3\. **Specific metadata** : The authors will have the option to choose up to 3
Keywords that they consider relevant for the data set and can be of frequent
use if someone is searching for the kind of data contained on the data set.
Once the Fact sheet is fulfilled it will be sent with the data set to the
Website managers. The Website managers will use the information indicated by
the authors to complete the metadata of the data sets that are going to go
public. The metadata will not be use in those data sets that has been
categorized in the Fact sheet as “Restricted”.

In order to make the information accessible for internal and external users
and according to the good practices for “Open data” free file formats such as
PDF, OpenOffice, PNG (portable network graphics) and SVG (scalable vector
graphics) will be prioritized when uploading information.

Regarding the names of the files, short descriptive and consistent file names
will be key to make it easier to locate the information needed now and in the
future. The rules to name data set files are reported in Table 1:  
  
<table>  
<tr>  
<th>

**Convention**

</th>  
<th>

_**[time_stamp]_FLASH_[data type]_[data postfix]_[version].[file format]** _

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

**Item**

</td>  
<td>

Time Stamp

</td>  
<td>

Data Type

</td>  
<td>

Data type postfix

</td>  
<td>

version

</td>  
<td>

File format

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

**Optional**

</td>  
<td>

X

</td>  
<td>

</td>  
<td>

X

</td>  
<td>

X

</td>  
<td>

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

**Definition**

</td>  
<td>

YYYT_MM_DD

</td>  
<td>

Design

Simulation

Measurement

Publication

Document

Report

Deliverable

Presentation

</td>  
<td>

arbitrary

</td>  
<td>

v#.#

</td>  
<td>

According to software: pdf jpg zip

xlsx

docx pptx

…

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Specific

Equipment used

for acquiring, e.g.

AFM, SEM, etc.

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Project Meeting

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Type of model, Simulation, etc.

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

**Examples**

</td>  
<td>

2018_03_31

</td>  
<td>

DelirevableReport

</td>  
<td>

D1.1

</td>  
<td>

v1.1

</td>  
<td>

As above

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

**Complete**

</td>  
<td>

_2018_03_31_FLASH_DelirevableReport_D1.1_v1.1.pdf_

</td>  
<td>

</td> </tr> </table>

**Table 2: FLASH data file naming convention.**

#  5\. Fact Sheet information

For each data set the researcher will fill the Fact Sheet shown in Table 2.
The fields specified in that Fact Sheet should be filled according to the
following rules and recommendations.

##  5.1 Data set description

###  5.1.1 Reference

Each data set will have a reference that will be generated by the combination
of the name of the project, the Work Package and Task in which it is generated
and a consecutive number (15 characters maximum, for example: FLASH_T1.0_01).

###  5.1.2 Description

An intelligible description of the data collected, understandable for people
that do not directly work in the project, and independent from other data set
descriptions, so it can be understood without having to go through every data
set. (60 characters maximum).

5.1.3 Authors

The name of the Authors and the Entity will have to be completed.

###  5.1.4 Origin

The researchers will have to select the origin or origins of the data between
the next options:

  * Laboratory experimental data; 

  

  * Computer simulation; 

  

  * Review; 

  

  * Design, drawings; 

  

. Papers;

  * Other, to be specify. 

  

###  5.1.5 Nature

The researchers will have to select the nature of the data between the next
options:

  * Documents (text, Word processors), spreadsheets; 

  

  * Laboratory notebooks, ; 

  

  * Type of model, simulation (i.e. Nextnano simulation of wavefunctions); 

  

  * Data type based on the equipment used (e.g. XRD, FTIR data) 

  

####  5.1.6 Sharing Status

The researchers will have to select the sharing status between the next
options:

  * Open: Open for public disposal. 

  

  * Embargo: When a data set is published in a journal, it will become public following the embargo policies of the publisher. 

  

  * Restricted: Only for project internal use. 

  

5.1.7 Required software for opening the file

The researchers will have to specify the software required or suggested for
opening the file.

###  5.1.8 Whether it underpins a scientific publication

The researchers will have to answer “Yes” or “No”, and in case the answer is
“Yes” they will have to give the reference and date to the mentioned
publication in the following format: _“NAME OF THE PUBLICATION.Year of
publication. DOI”._  
  
<table>  
<tr>  
<th>

**Description**

</th>  
<th>

**Reference**

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<th>

Description

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<th>

Authors

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<th>

Origin

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<th>

Nature

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<th>

Sharing status

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<th>

Required Software

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<th>

Whether underpins publication

</th>  
<th>

</th> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

**Metadata**

</td>  
<td>

Common metadata

</td>  
<td>

European Union (EU)

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Horizon 2020

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Far-Infrared Lasers Assembled using Silicon Heterostructures

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

FLASH

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Grant number: 766719

</td> </tr>  
<tr>  
<td>

Specific metadata

</td>  
<td>

</td> </tr> </table>

**Table 2:** _Example of Data Fact Sheet_ **.**

#  6\. Type of data in FLASH

This section gives and overview about the research data which are generated,
collected, processed and stored in FLASH. This includes the data description
for different types and formats, purpose with respect to project objectives
and tasks, for data re-use and how, data origin, expected data size, and to
whom it might be useful.

Data generated in FLASH will be strictly digital. In general, the data file
formats to be used shall meet the following criteria:

  * widely used and accepted as best practice within the specific discipline, • self-documenting, i.e. the digital file itself can include useful metadata, 

  

  * independent from specific platforms, hardware or software. 

  

However, different types of data will be generated and handled in FLASH.
Considering the technical disciplines related to FLASH project, high-
technology equipment and processes are used. Therefore, most of the research
data will be in appropriate formats. In the following the main data types are
described:

##  Design data

Design results are schematics and layouts of the active material and of device
components. The digital format of the designs is mostly appropriate (e.g. gds
files) to the special software (e.g. AutoCAD). Therefore, this software is
required for data re-use. Since, these softwares are only available with legal
licenses, they cannot be provided by consortium. This makes it impossible to
provide an open access to those design data. However, it will be possible to
provide pictures and screenshots from the designs which will be collected in
design reports or corresponding deliverable reports.

##  Simulation data

Further data type is generated by collecting results from simulations. These
are used to evaluate and estimate the performance and properties of the
simulated device. For the simulations, special software is typically used,
which need special software licenses for research or even business use. Such
software includes for example COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS, MATLAB, Mathematica and the
software developed by one of the consortium members (nextnano). The format of
simulation results are for a big extent appropriate data set only usable with
the simulation software. In some cases simulation results can be exported as
ASCII coded text files or to typical database type of formats and spreadsheets
with a complete description of the data set (list of fields). These have to be
post processed by (simulation data) evaluation software. In most cases are
diagrams of the parameters of interest and screenshots the outcomes of
simulations. For these reasons it could be not useful to provide the raw
simulation data for open access in FLASH. It makes more sense to provide the
processed simulation results as diagrams and collected as well as explained in
project reports and open-access publications. In case of simulation text files
or spreadsheets, the data set could be put in a zip archive and be attached to
the report. However, simulation data will only made open after the results
have been published.

##  Measurement data

These data are produced by laboratory experiments and hardware analysis. The
data are measurements of specific parameters related to the devices,
component, and material properties. Similarly, to simulation data, measurement
data are usually appropriate to the used equipment and corresponding software.
Sometimes, also typical database types of format or spreadsheets with a
complete description of the data set (list of fields) are available.

Therefore, also in case of measurement data, open access of raw data is not
worthwhile in FLASH. Detailed measurement data will be made accessible through
detailed Supplementary Information sections associated to published articles
and, after publication, via measurement reports which also describe in details
the measurement environment, e.g. specific performance parameters, test and
measurement equipment, experimental setups. If applicable database-based
measurement data sets will be attached as zip archive to the reports.

##  Publications

The most open and visible way to disseminated the data set produced within
FLASH will be the publication of research results in scientific articles.
Publications are created by one partner for individual results or as joint
publication on joint research efforts and success. Publications are made in
scientific journal and on conferences, mostly in the format of pdf files which
are commonly usable. In the context of publication data, the open-access
approach of Horizon 2020 is embraced by FLASH, following the guidelines
presented by the Commission. We shall aim at publishing the project results
mainly in fee-based open access scientific journals, following the open-access
Gold methodology, and selecting those expected to give the largest visibility
of FLASH research activity. For this reason, costs for publication fees have
been foreseen in the consortium budget. It is anticipated that FLASH
researchers will also primarily target the open-access Green method in the
case of conferences and workshop contributions, since the two open-access
methods are non-mutually exclusive. In that case the published article or the
final peer-reviewed manuscript is archived by the researcher in an online
scientific repository (FLASH Website, Arxive, ZENODO repository, etc.) before,
after, or alongside its publication. In this case, the authors must ensure
open access to the publication within a time frame which is defined by the
publisher (embargo times are usually six months to one year).

##  Project documents ad reports

A second major data set for open access will be project documents and reports,
such as deliverable reports. They are generated and collected to summarize the
project progress and results as well as discuss different approaches,
challenges and deviations with regard to the FLASH objectives. Reports can be
related to design, simulation and measurements and contains the processed
data. As long as the documents are not assigned to be confidential, contain
any confidential data, they are per se public. Normally, documents and reports
are in standard pdf format. Public FLASH documents and reports will be made
available and accessible on the FLASH webpage after their submission and
publication.

#  7\. FAIR data in FLASH

##  7.1 Making data findable

The research data from this project will be deposited both in:

  * A dedicated website for the project: The domain of the website is **https://www.flash-project.eu/.**

  

  * An open access repository: Best practices recommend using an open repository to ensure that the data can be found by anyone. The shared data sets of the FLASH project will be deposited in the ZENOBI repository (https://zenodo.org/). This is one of the free repositories recommended by the Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe (OpenAIRE) on their website, and it is an open repository for all fields of science that allows uploading any kind of data file formats. 

  

Both repositories are prepared to share research data in different ways
according to how the partners decide the data should be shared:

_The dedicated website for the project_ : Information can be shared in the
website at two different levels:

  * A private access intranet for internal management of research data. 

  

Each participant of the project will have a username and a password that will
be mandatory to enter into the intranet and have access to all the information
shared using the SSH/SFTP protocol.

  * A public section for the public access to final research data sets. As stated before in this document the data set shall be understood as aggregated data that can be analysed as a whole and has a conclusive and concrete result, and will not include laboratory notebooks, partial data sets, preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific paper. All the information that it is decided to be shared will have no access restriction. 

  

_An open access repository_ : The same Website managers that post the data
sets in the public section of the website page from FLASH will simultaneously
post it in the open access repository. ZENODO allows to upload files under
restricted, open or embargoed access.

##  7.2 Making data accessible

Generally, all data which after publication can be made accessible. However,
as previously described, for most of the data types in FLASH appropriate
formats and special restrictions (e.g. software licenses, patents, …) are
present which prohibit free-access to the data. For this reason, it has been
decided in FLASH that the use of a public repository for raw data is not
beneficial at the moment. The data will be stored, however, in the intranet
section of the FLASH website. However, a special repository, which links
publications to research data, will be evaluated and selected when first data
is collected during project progress.

##  7.3 Interoperable data

In this regard, FLASH will use as wherever possible data formats for open-
access knowledge representation, which are formal, accessible, shared and in a
broadly applicable language. Qualified references to other data will be
included. For example, information on the tools and instruments, which are
needed to validate the measurement results, are provided with the data sets.
In particular, the format for data sets of equal content, e.g. measurement
data, will be a zip archive.

##  7.4 Re-usable data

Within FLASH. re-usability of data is ensured by the fact that all the data
which will be provided for openaccess, e.g. documentation, reports papers,
will be inherently public (and free of charge). Therefore, no special licenses
are established at the moment. However, although the data will public the
FLASH project and its consortium members reserve the copyright of the
material. For re-usability the data will be stored on the webpage or on a
repository system when implemented for at least ten years.

#  8\. Data Security

Data will be stored on the IHP server on which the webpage of the project is
located. The IHP repository is managed and support by a team of experts and
subject to the institute data security measures and backup. The costs are
covered by the IHP budget. Passwords are distributed separately. The original
copies of the data will be also stored in the database of the entities that
have created them.

#  9\. Ethical Aspects

In the FLASH project, there are no ethical or legal issues present which
impairs the data managing. The research in dimension does not create, process
and store personal data. Personal data of the FLASH consortium is no subject
of the project’s data management.