**Introduction**

This Data Management Plan (DMP) describes the data management life cycle for
all datasets to be collected, processed or generated during the UNEXMIN
project. 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 access and how, 

  

  * how data will be curated / maintained and preserved. 

  

Reviews, updating and adjustments of the DMP will take place during the
execution of the project at meetings/workshops organized in the project
(months 12-45). The DMP will be updated as required.

This document is prepared according to the requirements for FAIR data (making
data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable) under the ORDP
provisions, thus following the principle "as open as possible, as closed as
necessary". In the case of UNEXMIN the project will lead to a successor
commercial entity "NewCo" which will use the hardware and software designs
produced by the UNEXMIN project, disclosure of which would compromise it
commercial competitiveness. Therefore, critical aspects of the hardware and
software will need to remain confidential. Some aspects of the design may be
patented, but others that are not patentable or would be prohibitively
expensive to patent will be regarded as "Trade Secrets".

However, the largest volume of data generated by the project will be
scientific data obtained during the four planned pilot studies. It is intended
that these data will form the basis for a series of scientific publications by
UNEXMIN consortium partners, but it is intended to make them available as soon
as possible, and in any case by the end of the project (M45) at the latest.

**2**

**Data Summary**

The purpose of this DMP is to support the management, by the project partners,
of the data by the project partners which will be collected, generated and/or
processed during the execution of the UNEXMIN project, and enhance the re-use,
availability and survivability of these data.

#  2.1 Purpose of the data and its relation to the project objectives

There are four main categories of data which will be collected.

First is the data to be collected specific to the design and development of
the robot and its instrumentation and which will be documented in a series of
Deliverables. These data are key to the success of the entire project as they
will be used in production of the final robot design. Also included in this
category is the new software to be developed for the robot itself and for
postprocessing.

Second is the actual navigation, physical, and chemical data to be collected
during missions of the submersible robot. These data are of many types and
forms as described in chapter 2.2 below, and will demonstrate how the
autonomous submersible robot will yield information that can be obtained in no
other way, which is the main purpose of the project. They will allow
demonstration of the use of the autonomous submersible robot by producing new
scientific results.

Third is data on flooded abandoned mines around Europe, collected within WP5
(the “Flooded Mine Inventory”), as an indication of potential requirements for
using the UNEXMIN project submersible robots for mineral exploration and geo-
scientific research applications. This will form a relatively small and self-
contained database, and will be of direct benefit to NewCo, the company to be
formed to continue and exploit the work of the UNEXMIN project.

Fourth is the data, recorded both in the set of deliverable documents and in
published and unpublished papers, on the scientific interpretation and results
from the pilot surveys.

#  2.2 Types and formats of data that the project will generate/collect

The UNEXMIN project will generate many different types of data in large
quantities. These can be divided into four main groups:

  1. data relevant to the UX-1 robot design and performance, which range from stakeholder requirement evaluations, simple conceptual descriptions, general drawings to elaborated blueprints of all the parts and their test and performance reports from simulations to real hardware tests in relevant environments. These data will consist of textual and graphical documents, with some numerical data from test results. Software to be used on the robot and for post-processing will be retained on the platforms on which it is developed, in source and binary forms. 

  

  2. Information produced about the test-sites, which, also, can widely vary from collected previously known information to high quality datasets and their visualization produced from the UX-1 robotic measurements. These cover many different data types, from x,y,z coordinates, distances, point clouds, pictures, temperature, conductivity, pH data, gamma-ray counts, spectral information of points / areas, mineral information of points / areas. It could also include databases produced by scientific instruments in a laboratory environment on reference samples to help the proper evaluation of the field data. Type “A” data generally will be produced during the planning, production and validation of the UX-1 robots (WP1–5), whereas the type “B” data will be produced during the test dives and post-processing of the delivered data related to WP2, 6 and 7. 

  

  

Type "B" data will in general include large to extremely large sets of
numerical data and large numbers of monochrome and colour images from on-board
cameras, and will form the basis of the main scientific results of the
project.

  3. The “Flooded Mines Inventory” to be generated by WP5 in the project can be considered as type “C” data, which will contain an extensive list of European flooded mines with their accessible information. This will be held electronically in a set of database tables. 

  

  4. Other data will also be generated as deliverables (written reports) of the project, conference posters, brochures, talks (in ppt and/or pdf format) and publications (general and scientific). These data can be considered type “D”, and will be largely produced in WP8 and/or in cooperation with WP8 as well as directly from WP7. 

  

  

#  2.3 Re-use of existing data

Where relevant, existing data on robot components and scientific instruments
to be used will be compiled and used in the design/development process.
Similarly, for software, existing products will be used where appropriate as
the basis and starting point for development of on-board and post-processing
systems. Where possible and appropriate, open-source solutions will be used:
thus the robot operating system ROS based on the open-source LINUX operating
system will be used, and the main post-processing database selected is SQLite
which is both open-source and freely redistributable.

For the “Flooded Mines Inventory”, all data to be included will be abstracted
from pre-existing sources, collected by project participants and linked third
parties, and re-formatted by UNEXMIN project to compile the inventory
database.

#  2.4 Origin of the data

The data on robot components and instruments is derived mostly from
manufacturers and suppliers.

The majority of pre-existing software to be used is either publicly available
open-source products or is the property of UNEXMIN project participants made
available for use by the project. Additional to this, new software is
developed within the project for use on the robot itself, on mission-control
computers, and for the wide range of post-processing applications.

Data on flooded mines is derived from a variety of sources such as national
mines databases maintained by the Linked Third Parties themselves, government
mines departments, geological surveys, etc.

Data from the pilot surveys is generated within the project by use of the UX-1
robots.

#  2.5 Expected size of the data

For data of categories (a), (c) and (d) identified in chapter 2.2 above, the
expected volumes will be relatively small, measured in several megabytes to a
few gigabytes at most.

Data of category (b) collected during robot missions, will consist of medium
to extremely large data sets. In particular the navigation sub-system will
yield point-cloud data sets anticipated to be many gigabytes up to terabytes
in total size. The on-board cameras will also produce many thousands of high-
resolution images in each mission, requiring gigabytes of storage. Precise
estimates of the total data volumes are difficult to obtain until mission
parameters are defined in detail.

#  2.6 Data utility

It is anticipated that the data from UX-1 missions will be useful directly to
a range of scientists within the project and more widely, as well as
indirectly to mineral exploration and mining companies. Scientific studies
will include the use of geophysical data from on-board instruments as well as
imaging data, and are expected to yield new data of local and regional
geological significance, as well as information of use to industrial
archaeologists.

Data acquired during development of UX-1 will be of use to NewCo in
exploitation and further development of the technology.

The flooded mines inventory will be of use to NewCo in identification of
potential clients and users of its technology and to national and EC planners
in development of strategies for exploration for critical mineral raw
materials.

**3**

**FAIR Data**

#  3.1 Making data findable, including provisions for metadata

By far the most significant data produced by the UNEXMIN project will be the
data from the pilot surveys. It is primarily these data that must be made
**findable** , **accessible** , **interoperable** and **re-usable** .

##  3.1.1 Data discovery

Data of the different types identified in chapter 2.2 above will be handled in
different ways, as follows:

  1. **Technical design and development data for the UX-1 robots.** Data that cannot be patented (or would be too expensive to patent) should by default being considered "trade secrets" unless agreed by all the owners of the data and/or the Steering Committee to be eligible to be placed in the public domain. It should automatically be passed to NewCo at the end of the UNEXMIN project, and it will then be a decision for NewCo to make, whether and when to release such data. 

  

  2. **Data generated by pilot site missions** . There will be multiple tables of data from each mission at each pilot site, from all of the sensors, cameras, and from the navigation system. For each tables there will also be a metadata file containing information specific to each instrument or camera. The anticipated volume of data will be extremely large: with individual mission databases from many gigabytes up to terabytes in size. This dictates that the data cannot practically be made available online. However, a simple online index to the databases will be set up to enable online data discovery. This index will identify the mission sites and dates/times, the set of sensors and navigation instruments for which data are available, and additional descriptive information which may be relevant (such as whether the mission was aborted or otherwise incomplete, or significant discoveries made). The quality of the data will be discussed between partners, who will decide which data are of sufficiently high quality to be used for publication of the research done in the project. Only these data will be kept in an open data repository to be made publicly available. 

  

  3. **Flooded mines inventory.** The flooded mines inventory will be held in a standard database and made freely available online through the UNEXMIN project website and subsequently through the NewCo website. 

  

  4. **Project Deliverables, Published Papers, Posters and Presentations.** A central list of these will be maintained on the UNEXMIN project website and subsequently by NewCo, and as defined in chapter 3.2.2 below, they will be held on the web server and downloadable in PDF and other formats as appropriate. 

  

  

Currently it is planned to add standard identification mechanisms or permanent
metadata only through the use of the project website www.unexmin.eu and any
successor website to be managed by NewCo, in which all online databases
(flooded mines inventory, index of mission databases, list of reports and
publications) will be held. Digital Object Identifiers may be set up at a
later stage.

##  3.1.2 Naming conventions

File naming conventions for the pilot missions have been defined in D6.1 -
Database Specifications Manual and are summarised here:

_There will be a very large number of separate data and metadata files
generated by UNEXMIN missions. A file naming convention is therefore
absolutely essential, in order to assist organisation and retrieval of data.
The following standard naming convention is proposed for use both as file
names and in naming relational database tables (see notation conventions in
section 3 above):_

_{M}rrrr.UXM for metadata_

_{M}rrrr.UXD for scalar data_

_{M}rrrr.VVV for video data, where VVV is the standard extension for the video
format used {M}rrrr-ffffff.PPP for image data, where PPP is the standard
extension for the image format used_  
  
<table>  
<tr>  
<th>

_{M}_

</th>  
<th>

_mission/sensor identifier in the form**XXXyyyymmddnnSSS** _

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

_**XXX** _

</td>  
<td>

_three-character location code (such as IDR = Idrija)_

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

_**yyyymmdd** _

</td>  
<td>

_the date (e.g.20160801 for 1st August 2016)_

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

_**nn** _

</td>  
<td>

_sequential number of the mission on that date (in range 01 to 99)_

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

_**SSS** _

</td>  
<td>

_a code identifying the sensor unit data stream_

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

_**rrrr** _

</td>  
<td>

_sequential number of the recording session within the mission (in range
00019999). A recording session is the interval between turning a sensor on and
turning it off again_

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

_**ffffff** _

</td>  
<td>

_a six-digit sequential identifier (in the range 000001-999999) of the frame
or image within a recording interval_

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

When data files have been validated and are to be archived in databases for
release, standardised database names will be used. All databases produced in
the project will include in their names the name of the project (UNEXMIN) and
a short information on the type of data (e.g., "UNEXMIN_Ecton_Mission_12").

##  3.1.3 Search keywords

The submersible robot mission data are predominantly numeric, thus keyword
searching is not of great relevance to this project.

##  3.1.4 Version numbers

Version numbering is of importance to documents which are updated and to
software developed by the project. In both cases version numbering will be
simple and clear.

For post-processing applications (data conversion, database access, data
analysis, and visualisation) software, the project uses **git** ,
**SourceTree** and **bitbucket** for version control.

##  3.1.5 Metadata

Metadata are defined for each sensor, camera, and subsystem as required. No
standards are defined for such metadata, but each file will be specified to
provide a full set of information required for correct space- and time-
registration of data. This is of particular importance for onboard cameras
where angle of view, focal length, aperture, lens and window distortion
parameters and other such factors are crucial to correct registration of
images on the point cloud obtained from the navigation system.

When compatible with the themes of the INSPIRE Directive, the data and
metadata added in the project will follow the format recommended by the
INSPIRE Directive. Metadata will be created following the model of the INSPIRE
Directive (they will offer the same types of information). As the provisions
in the INSPIRE Directive are compulsory for EU members, this will ensure a
high degree of compatibility with other data sets in the EU.

#  3.2 Making data openly accessible

An important issue is to monitor the progress of the novel technology
development, carefully distinguishing among confidential data (like trade
secrets e.g. confidential know-how) and Open Research Data in accordance with
the H2020 directives, and if relevant seek patent protection to proprietary
technology and methods, if such new discoveries evolve through the research in
the project. The responsibility to initiate the patenting will be upon the
respective WP leader participants, with ownership proportion agreed within the
actively participating research team members.

In addition to the various scientific methodologies and concepts UNEXMIN will
develop technologies that will be suitable for commercial exploitation in the
future. This will require very careful management of Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR). The principles governing IPR are outlined in the Consortium
Agreement and further details will be developed and agreed in the NewCo
business plan.

As a general rule, the data representing syntheses of the knowledge from
previously published research will be open data from the moment they are put
in the repository. The unpublished geological data (produced in the project
and older unpublished data provided by partners) will be confidential for a
3-year period for the purpose of ensuring the novelty of the data used in
scientific articles published by the partners. The unpublished technological
data will remain confidential over a period that is decided by their owners.

For components of the project that are sufficiently unique and innovative, the
developing WP shall give early warning to the Steering Committee about the
confidentiality relevant to this component to all consortium members, not to
disclose details until protection is in place. Consideration will be given to
patent protection before publication of details of these components.

##  3.2.1 Data to be made openly available as the default

The very large volume of scientific data to be obtained by the pilot survey
missions will be openly available. Although it cannot practically be supplied
online for downloading, because of the sheer volume, an index of the data will
be available and searchable online and data sets will be provided on request
on suitable media (such as large-capacity portable hard disk drives), by the
UNEXMIN project consortium and subsequently by NewCo.

Where not patented, detailed design and development data for both hardware and
software will be considered as Trade Secrets as these will be key elements to
the exploitation plan for the project's successor business NewCo.

##  3.2.2 Data access

All the metadata and data of types (a), (c) and (d) (see chapter 2.2 above)
will be stored in a repository, accessible from the UNEXMIN project website.
The publicly available Open Research Data will be available by any simple web
browser. The search, browsing, displaying and downloading the data will be
available freely, without any registration.

The data to be released, where in relatively small quantities (such as the
Flooded Mines Inventory) will be made accessible and freely downloadable from
the UNEXMIN website and from the website of its successor NewCo. For larger
volumes of data, access will be by request, on suitable media, as explained in
chapter 3.1 above.

In accordance with ORDP requirements, each beneficiary will ensure open access
(free of charge, online access for any user) to all peer-reviewed scientific
publications relating to its results. In particular, all beneficiaries will:

  1. as soon as possible and at the latest on publication, deposit a machine-readable electronic copy of the published version or final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication in a repository for scientific publications; 

  

  

Where practicable, the beneficiary will also deposit at the same time the
research data needed to validate the results presented in the deposited
scientific publications (if these data are derived from the pilot surveys,
they will be stored and made available as described in chapter 3.2.5 below).

  2. ensure open access to the deposited publication — via the repository — at the latest: (i) on publication, if an electronic version is available for free via the publisher, or (ii) within six months of publication in any other case. 

  

  3. ensure open access via the UNEXMIN repository (website) to the bibliographic metadata that identify the deposited publication. The bibliographic metadata will be in a standard format and must include all of the following: 

     * the terms ["European Union (EU)" and "Horizon 2020"]; 

  

     * the name of the action, acronym and grant number; 

  

     * the publication date, and length of embargo period if applicable, and 

  

     * a persistent identifier. 

  

  

  

For data of type (b) (as defined in chapter 2.2 above) derived from the pilot
surveys, the following will apply.

In accordance with ORDP requirements, the beneficiaries responsible for each
pilot survey will:

  1. deposit in the UNEXMIN research data repository and take measures to make it possible for third parties to access, mine, exploit, reproduce and disseminate — free of charge for any user — the following: 

    1. the data, including associated metadata, needed to validate the results presented in scientific publications as soon as possible; 

  

    2. other data, including associated metadata, as specified and within the deadlines laid down in chapter 3.2.8 below. 

  
  

  

  2. provide information — via the repository — about tools and instruments at the disposal of the beneficiaries and necessary for validating the results (and — where possible — provide the tools and instruments themselves). 

  

  

Because of the anticipated very high data volumes, it is not appropriate to
use online data repositories. The UNEXMIN research data repository will
consist of a set of high-capacity disk drives to be maintained by the UNEXMIN
consortium and subsequently NewCo. Third party access to the data will be upon
request, and supply by the third party of suitable media for transcription of
the requested data.

##  3.2.3 Methods or software tools needed to access the data

The submersible mission data will be held as tables in SQLite databases and as
image files linked from such tables. SQLite is globally the most widely used
database management system and there are open-source tools available to access
it. For Windows computers, the programs _sqlite3.exe_ and _DB Browser for
SQLite.exe_ are available free of charge and provide the necessary
functionality to extract data into standard CSV format files.

Full descriptions of data analysis and visualisation tools which will be used
in the preparation of scientific publications will be included in those
publications and they will be listed in the metadata related to each
publication.

##  3.2.4 Documentation about the software needed to access the data

Full documentation for SQLite is available online at www.sqlite.org. SQLite
itself is an opensource product and has been implemented on a wide variety of
operating systems. It has also been embedded in a large number of applications
software systems.

##  3.2.5 Depositing data, metadata, documentation and code

It is impractical to make anticipated large volumes of data of type (b)
available online. Such data will be held in offline storage with multi-site
backup for security, and made available to users on request. Part of (b) type
data will be put to the online accessible storage, to represent the kinds of
data that are accessible upon request. These data will be carefully selected
by the consortium to have good quality, contain relevant information, but not
contain any confidential, or ethically questionable information. Otherwise,
all master copies of the pilot mission data/metadata will be held by the
UNEXMIN consortium with additional copies held by relevant participants (in
multiple locations) to ensure long-term data security.

Design data and post-processing software developed for the project will be
deposited at bitbucket (www.bitbucket.org) which provides industry-standard
open access capabilities. The bitbucket system is already in use by the
project's hardware and software developers.

##  3.2.6 Data access committee

Data access policy has been agreed across the consortium, and no data access
committee is required. Questions concerning data management policy will be
discussed and agreed by the project's main Steering Committee.

##  3.2.7 Access conditions

Mission data will be made available openly. Licensing is not required beyond
the standard EC requirements for acknowledgment of EC funding of the project.

Licensing of software will be decided individually by the software developers
in line with their own standard software licensing policies. Open source
access conditions do not require the identity of the person accessing the data
to be disclosed. There is therefore no need to ascertain this identity.
However, if software licensing terms of individual consortium members require
this, their own standard procedures will be followed.

Type (a) data that cannot be patented (or would be too expensive to patent)
should by default be considered "trade secrets" unless agreed by all the
owners of the data and/or the Steering Committee to be eligible to be placed
in the public domain. It should automatically be passed to NewCo at the end of
the UNEXMIN project, and it will then be a decision for NewCo to make, whether
and when to release such data.

##  3.2.8 Deadlines

Data held on the UNEXMIN website will be downloadable immediately, free of
charge and without any need for user registration.

Data, requested by third parties, which is held offline on high-capacity hard
disks will be supplied on request to third parties who provide suitable media
for transcription of the data, within a period of not more than 90 days from
supply of the transcription media. The transcription will be carried out free
of charge.

#  3.3 Making data interoperable

Metadata will be created following the model of the INSPIRE Directive (they
will offer the same types of information). As the provisions in the INSPIRE
Directive are compulsory for EU members, this will ensure a high degree of
compatibility with other data sets in the EU.

##  3.3.1 Interoperability of project data

The data are held in open-source SQLite database and can be easily exported in
CSV format which is readable by a very wide range of standard software
applications. The SQLite tables themselves are linked through key fields so
that any required subset of data can be easily extracted using standard SQL
commands. Location data are stored using standard survey grids to allow ease
of combination with data sets from other sources, such as surface geological
maps.

##  3.3.2 Data and metadata vocabularies

The mission data are primarily numeric, so do not require any vocabularies.
Where there may be uncertainty over the recording units used, these are fully
documented in the pilot deliverable reports (D7.2 Pilot report from Kaatiala
mine; D7.3 Pilot report from Urgeirica mine; D7.4 Pilot report from Idrija
mine; D7.5 Pilot report from Ecton mine).

##  3.3.3 Increase data re-use (through clarifying licences)

Access and licensing conditions are as described in chapter 3.2.7 above. Data
will be freely available, without licensing restrictions beyond a requirement
to acknowledge its source as the UNEXMIN project and the standard statement on
funding by the EC.

**3.3.4 When will the data be made available for re-use?**

The data will be made available for re-use not later than 6 months after the
end of the project. By agreement with consortium partners it could be made
available earlier. Data will not be made available until it has been
thoroughly validated for correctness and consistency.

##  3.3.5 Restrictions on data use by third parties

Some of the technical data on hardware and software will be defined as Trade
Secrets and its use restricted to participants in NewCo. The scope of such
data will be kept as limited as possible and will be defined in the NewCo
commercial exploitation plan (Deliverable D8.12).

##  3.3.6 Data quality assurance processes

No formal processes are defined for data quality assurance, but validation
will be carried out during the construction and population of the post-
processing database. This will include such processes as outlier (rogue point)
detection and elimination, and other statistical verification of data sets.

#  Allocation of resources

##  Costs for making data FAIR

No additional costs for making data FAIR have been identified. The processes
required are an integral part of the project itself.

For third parties who request mission data which (because of its volume)
requires the use of special media, it will be expected that they will supply
their own media for transcription of the data. Alternatively the UNEXMIN
project or subsequently NewCo can supply the media for a small charge which
will cover the costs.

##  Responsibility for data management

The project coordinator is ultimately responsible for data management, but
this responsibility will be automatically devolved to the participant managing
each phase of the project (design, development, testing, pilot surveys).

##  Long term preservation

As the Open Research Data will be kept in multiple copies by NewCo and
relevant project participants, the archiving and preservation will follow the
general procedures used by the project participants. The partners will assess
the archiving and preservation procedures and decide whether special
procedures are needed for the data produced in the project and also for how
long the data are going to be kept in the repository.

After the end of the project, copies of all data will be maintained by NewCo
under conditions to be determined within the NewCo business plan, with off-
site secure storage of full backup copies. The online open research data will
be available for the public for minimum of five years after the end of the
project, which is a responsibility of NewCo. As a contingency plan, if NewCo
does not continue for any reason, all the data, and the responsibility with
them will be transferred to a permanent organization in the UNEXMIN
consortium, such as the Miskolc University, or to the Eurogeosurveys or
relevant national geoscience/mining authorities for safe keeping.

#  Data security

Responsibility for security of design and development data rests with the
relevant participants, all of whom follow standard industry practice.

For software under development, version control systems (git / SourceTree /
bitbucket) also provides a high level of security. Additionally, the post-
processing software developers use normal grandfather / father / son backup
systems with backups held in separate locations.

Pilot mission data will be transferred from the robot at the end of each
mission to a hard disk which is removed to a safe location. Following
conversion to the SQLite database, a further hard disk copy is retained in a
safe location, and additional copies are made as required, and held by
different project participants.

The physical security of UNEXMIN data may be summarised as:

  * Secure backups of data before any processing 

  

  * Very large data volumes (terabytes), thus 'cloud' storage impractical. Storage for most efficient transfer on external hard disks 

  

  * Audit trail to be maintained – log of database operations 

  

  * Need to establish a standard “chain of custody” for data security 

  

  * Data locking: read-only access to any _copies_ of the primary database 

  

For long-term security, all data will be held centrally by UNEXMIN (and
subsequently NewCo) with at least two further copies at different safe
locations. Because of the risks of data loss through long-term decay of media,
a particular requirement for NewCo will be regular transcription of data to
new media. These transcriptions themselves will need to be validated for
accuracy. Procedures will be defined as a part of the NewCo commercial
exploitation plan.

#  Ethical aspects

There are no ethical or legal issues which have an impact on sharing of pilot
mission data. For technical design data, the only legal issues are as defined
above, related to possible patenting or definition as Trade Secrets of some
parts of the design of hardware and software components.

The project does not handle or store personal data.

#  Other issues

The UNEXMIN project does not make use of other
national/funder/sectorial/departmental procedures for data management.