#  Chapter 1 Introduction

The M3TERA Data Management Plan (further on referred as DMP) is required for
H2020 projects participating in the Open Research Data Pilot and describes the
data management life cycle for all data sets that will be generated,
collected, and processed by the research project M3TERA. Being more specific,
it outlines how research data will be handled, what methodology and standards
will be used, whether and how the data will be exploited or made accessible
for verification and re-use and how it will be curated and preserved during
and even after the M3TERA project is completed. The DMP can be considered as a
checklist for the future, as well as a reference for the resource and budget
allocations related to the data management.

However, to explain the **reason** why a DMP gets elaborated during the
lifespan of a research project, the European Commission’s vision is that
information already paid for by the public purse should not be paid again each
time it is accessed or used. Thus, other European companies should benefit
from this already performed research.

To be more specific, _“r _esearch data_ refers to information, in particular
facts or numbers, collected to be examined and considered and as a basis for
reasoning, discussion, or calculation. In a research context, examples of data
include statistics, results of experiments, measurements, observations
resulting from fieldwork, survey results, interview recording and images. The
focus is on research data that is available in digital form.” _ 1

The DMP is not a fixed document. It will evolve and gain more precision and
substance during the lifespan of the M3TERA project. The first version of the
DMP, including information from the first six months of the project, includes
the following:

  * Data management o Data set description o Collection/Generation/Documentation of Data and Metadata o Intellectual Property Rights 

  

  * Accessibility o Data access and –sharing o Archiving and preservation 

  

However, before this information from all partners gets depicted in a more
detailed manner (Chapter 3 and Chapter 4), first the used methodology (Chapter
2) gets shortly described in the following chapter.

#  Chapter 2 Methodology

As mentioned in the introduction, a research instrument questionnaire was
selected as the best mechanism of collecting partner inputs related to the
data management within the M3TERA project. This had the dual aim of first
gathering a more detailed understanding of the operations planned during the
project and also to raise the awareness of the requirements outlined in the
Guidelines on Data Management in Horizon 2020\.

The questionnaire has been divided into five main chapters, consisting each
one of a series of questions (note: the questionnaire template is attached to
Appendix of this document). In total, the questionnaire was designed to be
broad enough to include the information required by the European commission
and to cover the various roles the partners play within the M3TERA project. As
the project is by now within its first months, some information remains
undefined at the moment. Therefore, a more detailed and elaborated version of
the DMP will be delivered at later stages of the project.

Moreover, the DMP will be updated at least by the mid-term and final review to
be able to fine-tune it to the data generated and the uses identified by the
consortium.

M3TERA D8.2

#  Chapter 3 Data management

The term ‘Data Management’ stands for an extensive strategy targeting data
availability to target groups within an organized and structured process
converted to practice. Before making data available to the public, the data to
be published needs to be defined, collected, documented and addressed
properly. The following sections define this process within M3TERA and will be
led by the following questions:

  * **3.1 Data Set** – Which type of data will be generated? Which formats will be chosen and can be reused? Which data volume will the data comprise? 

  

  * **3.2 Data Generation and Collection** – How can the data set be described? To whom might be the data useful? How can it be identified as research data? 

  

  * **3.3 Data Documentation & ** \- Does the project data comply with international research standards? 

  

  * **3.4 Intellectual Property Rights** \- Will the public availability be restricted due to the adherence to Intellectual Property Rights? 

  

##  3.1 Data Set Description

The project has been generating data during the lifespan of the M3TERA
project. The overall volume of the generated data is estimated to reach 5-10
GByte. Approximately one out of four beneficiaries will reuse existing data
for M3TERA, whereas the rest will start generating and collecting data from
scratch. This generated data will differentiate then from quality data, over
characterization data of microsystem components and subsystem performance,
provided as graphs and raw data, to data design flow or mixed-signal circuit
design data (Virtuoso, Spectre, Avenue, Calibre).

Furthermore, geometrical designs (STEP), simulations, measurements (CSV), and
calculation data will be generated. Also Matlab will be used as data
generation instrument. Mostly data will be displayed in numbers and/or
pictures, geometrical- (*.sm3, *.jpg, *.dxf), Microsoft Excel and Microsoft
Word format, and through the use of the EM software (*.hfss).

Moreover, the consortium acknowledged that the chosen formats and used in-
house software will enable long-term access to the mentioned data.

##  3.2 Data Generation and Collection

Data generation and collection is concerened about the project data generated
or collected, including its origin, nature and scale, and to whom it might be
useful.

Data will mostly be generated by the M3TERA beneficiaries themselves or among
the consortium. Therefore, different methodologies come into operation. Almost
half of the partners will generate data via research. Others will do different
types of measurements and simulations (e.g. microwave, process/device, and
other components), or bottom-up/top-down design flow (behavioural, transistor
level, circuit synthesis, hand layout, layout synthesis, verification, etc).
However, for some partners the exact methodology is unknown yet, but important
to use what are commonly used and known. In case the data gets collected and
not generated in M3TERA, data originally will come from literature research,
internal databases, company internal instrumentation, and through design (e.g.
MMIC), simulations and measurements.

The consortium agrees in prospectively seeing the possibility to integrate or
reuse the generated data. They further agree that the data will be useful for
universities, research organizations, SMEs and scientific publications.
Moreover, it might be also beneficial for IP providers and to design
companies. Even though the data either includes already information for the
use or is nonetheless so transparent to not require information to be read and
interpreted, half of the partners mentioned that dedicated software packages,
access to the PDK and IFAT design flow and tools are required.

##  3.3 Data Documentation & Metadata

Data documentation ensures that the given dataset or set of documents will be
understood, citied properly and interpreted correctly by everyone.

All partners will document their data in a different way, either logging
relevant data, or using dedicated software (EM/EDA), libraries and IP
management systems. Others prefer to document it after designing, simulating
and measuring the components using also MS office and MATLAB. Almost half of
the partners will not use metadata standards, the rest however will use EAD,
ISO/IEC, SAML, Cadence and .xml formats.

##  3.4 Intellectual Property Rights

Even though IPR issues mainly arise during the project lifetime or even after
project end due to the dissemination (scientific and non-scientific
publications, conferences etc.) and exploitation (licensing, spin-offs etc.)
of project results, the M3TERA consortium considered the handling of IPR right
from the very beginning, already during the project planning phase. Therefore
a Consortium Agreement (CA) clearly states the background, foreground,
sideground of each partner and defines rules regarding patents, copyrights,
(un-) registered designs and other similar or equivalent forms of statutory
protection.

Within the M3TERA project most data will be generated within internal
processes at partner level through measurement analysis. Close cooperation
within the consortium may lead to joint generation of data, which is clearly
handled in terms of IPR issues within the CA.

At this stage of the project, no licenses are required, as the commercial
value of the data itself might be low. The reuse of valuable data within
M3TERA is covered by the CA and will be depending on hardware and software
targets of the consortium.

Furthermore, no third party data is reused in the current project phase. In
case third-party data will be reused, confidentiality restrictions might apply
in specific cases, which will be analyzed per case in detail.

Project data will be published only after review or publication through
scientific publication institutes or after ensuring that data is uncritical in
terms of IPR issues. Further, data of commercial value for the project
partners might underlie restrictions or face a minor time lag before
publication.

In total, within M3TERA, all public data is well discoverable and accessible.
However, confidential data is only accessible via internal partner platforms
and the provided IT infrastructure solely for the M3TERA consortium as agreed
in the Consortium Agreement. As data gets and will be provided in readable
text format, the consortium (except Chalmers) agrees that the data is
assessable and intelligible. Further, they confirm that as a basis for future
scientific research activities the data will be usable beyond the original
purpose. Regarding suitable standards it can be finally said that only ANTERAL
mentioned that data is interoperable to specific quality standards, whereas
the others cannot state a comment at the moment, do not know it or deny this
statement.

#  Chapter 4 Accessibility

While Chapter 3 focuses on the internal project processes before publication
including the compliance with the project rules for IPR, Chapter 4 describes
how the generated data will become accessible for public (re-) use (Section
4.1) and how the availability will be ensured permanently, whether data needs
to be destroyed/retained for any contractual, legal or regulatory purpose as
well as how long the data should be preserved, what costs will occur and how
they will be covered. (Section 4.2).

##  4.1 Access and Sharing

Access to and sharing of data helps to advance science and to maximize the
research investment. A recent paper  2  reported that when data is shared
through an archive, research productivity and often the number of publications
increases. Protecting research participants and guarding against disclosure of
identities are essential norms in scientific research. Data producers should
take efforts to provide effective informed consent statements to respondents,
to identify data before deposit when necessary, and to communicate to the
archive any additional concerns about confidentiality. With respect to
timeliness of data deposit, archival experience has demonstrated that the
durability of the data increases and the cost of processing and preservation
decreases when data deposits are timely. It is important that data is
deposited while the producers are still familiar with the dataset and able to
fully transfer their knowledge to the archive.

In particular potential users can find out about generated and existing data
most likely through the project's dissemination activities (scientific
publications and papers), deliverables, presentations and technical events
(conferences, trade shows) etc. During the project lifetime these documents
and data will be published on our official project website  ( _www.m3tera.eu_
)  where a broad community has access to the project information. Besides the
M3TERA public websites also marketing flyers or the internal project SVN
repository will be used as a tool to provide and exchange the requested data.

In principle, the data will be shared within the M3TERA consortium according
to our Consortium Agreement (with respect to any IPR issues) via a secured SVN
repository as soon as the data is available. To the public community, data
will be shared according to the dissemination level of the data via the public
project website. Partner Ericsson stated that they will share their data to
the public under bilateral agreements but there are no conditions for "open"
data generated by them. Besides the SVN and the website, the consortium is
also willing to handle requests directly. Public deliverables will be made
available as soon as they have been approved by the European Commission.

In this early stage of the project (M06) the consortium does not pursue to get
a persistent identifier for the data generated.

##  4.2 Archiving and Preservation

Generally, the consortium's opinion is that it will not be necessary to
destroy any data for contractual, legal, or regulatory purposes. However, as
described before, there will be the case that the confidential deliverables
will be restricted.

At the moment it cannot be determined if other data should be kept. Along with
the project progress, the M3TERA consortium will discuss this further.
However, the data generated will serve as basis for future scientific research
work and reports on device performance as well as for benchmarking. The M3TERA
consortium will use the data also for the development of SiGeBiCMOS circuits,
the use of mm-wave suited packages (eWLB), for chip/RF-MEMS interfaces and the
RF-MEMS design and modeling. Further foreseeable research will be mmW building
practice, future radio systems as well as antenna research. The consortium
will also develop a sensing prototype for M3TERA.

With regards to the retention and preservation of the data, M3TERA will retain
and/or preserve the produced data at least for three years after the project
end. Further, it will be stored in a commodity cloud with usage of internal
infrastructure and data bases from the partners or external platforms.

Costs for data storage and archiving will occur, in particular for sever
provision (infrastructure) and maintenance (security updates). The
coordinator, Technikon, has foreseen appropriate costs in the project budget
for the active project time. At a later stage of the project it can be better
assessed, if further costs for data storage will occur. These costs will then
be covered by the partners with their own resources.

#  Chapter 5 Summary and conclusion

This data management plan outlines the handling of data generated within the
M3TERA project, during and after the project lifetime. As this document will
be kept as a living document it will be regularly updated by the consortium.
The partners put into write their plans and guarded expectations regarding
valuable and publishable data.

A questionnaire on data management issues supported the partners to create
awareness for data handling right at the project start. Within the M3TERA
consortium qualitative data, characterization data, design data etc. will be
generated in different designs like Matlab, Microsoft Excel, EM etc. These
data will be valuable for universities, research organizations, SMEs and
scientific publications.

The M3TERA consortium is aware of proper data documentation requirements and
will rely on each partners’ competence in appropriate citation etc. The
Consortium Agreement (CA) forms the legal basis in dealing with IPR issues and
covers clear rules for dissemination or exploitation of project data. Besides
the M3TERA public website, which targets a broad interest group, also
marketing flyers or the SVN repository will be used as a tool to provide data.
With regards to the retention and preservation of the data, M3TERA partners
will retain and/or preserve the produced data for several years, three years
after the project end at least.

The M3TERA consortium is convinced that this data management plan ensures that
project data will be provided for further use timely, available and in
adequate form, taking into account the IPR restrictions of the project.