Policies & Requirements

What are UAntwerpen policies?

The Research Data Management Policy of UAntwerpen formulates an ethical and practical framework for the proper handling of research data during the different stages of the full (research) data lifecycle. This includes research data generated by researchers or students from the UAntwerpen, whether or not in collaboration with others, or outside staff using the infrastructure of the University of Antwerp. This framework facilitates the alignment of the different roles and responsibilities of all parties involved, spreading best practices in RDM at the UAntwerpen, and ensuring compliance with the requirements regarding RDM of different funders.

What does your funder require?

Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)

FWO requires that the supervisor of a project, and from the 2020 application round onwards also the holder of a fellowship, remains accountable at all times for the data management of their respective project or fellowship. All FWO researchers are expected to pay attention to RDM before, during and for at least five years after their research project. There are several stages you should pay attention to:

  1.  The FWO application form includes a short section about the Data Management Plan (DMP) that contains five questions to be answered by an applicant (description of data types, data preservation, security measures in the field of ethics, and other issues). You can create this limited DMP by using the online planning tool.
  2. At the beginning of an approved project, promotors or project supervisors (from 2018) and fellows (from 2020) are expected to create a full DMP. You can create the full DMP by using the online planning tool.
  3. Submit the full DMP within six months after the official project start date mentioned in the FWO contract to the RDM Team. The RDM Team will provide you with feedback on your DMP and will archive all submitted DMPs. The PI is expected to keep a copy as well. 
    Submit the full DMP within six months after an actual project start date to the RDM Team. The RDM Team will provide you with feedback on your DMP and will archive all submitted DMPs. The PI is expected to keep a copy as well. 
  4. At the end of the project, the final version of the “full DMP” (which of course may/should have been updated since its first version based on actual experiences) has to be added to the final project report. Submit this report to the FWO through FWO’s e-portal. It will be used as an element in the final evaluation of the project by the evaluation panels and external referees. At this stage, you should also contact the RDM Team for feedback.

Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO)

​BELSPO obliges researchers to provide a DMP as the main means through which to address data management comprehensively before, during, and after the project.

1.     A preliminary DMP presented with the grant application must be completed and submitted to the BELSPO program administrator within 6 months after the project starting date. To draft the DMP, you can use the online planning tool. You can also contact the RDM-Team for feedback.

2.     At the end of the project, the final version of the DMP (which of course may/should have been updated since its first version based on actual experiences) has to be added to the final project report and needs to be submitted to the BELSPO program administrator. It will be used as an element in the final evaluation by the relevant expert panel.

3.     Important: 

a.      You are required to deposit the data in a certified repository (or other mechanisms), so that third parties can access it free of charge.

b.     When your manuscript is ready to be published, the accompanying data have to be made available at the same time. Datasets can be linked to the scientific publication they underpin, and which have either been deposited in, or linked to Orfeo, BELSPO’s central Open Access Repository for publications, preferably under a Creative Commons CC0 and CC BY license.

University Research Fund (BOF)

1.     At the beginning of an approved project, promotors should draft A DMP using the online planning tool.          

For GOA and DOCPRO projects (except DOCPRO1), the DMP should be submitted within six months after the project start date. For STIMPRO and KP, the deadline is three months after the project start date. You should submit your DMP to the RDM Team.  The RDM Team will provide you with feedback on your DMP and will archive all submitted DMPs. The PI is expected to keep a copy as well. 

2.     At the end of the project, the final version of the DMP (which of course may/should have been updated since the first version) must be added to the final project report and will be used as an element in the final evaluation by the expert panels. At this stage, you should also contact the RDM Team for feedback.​

Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe requires a DMP for projects funded under this umbrella.

1.     At the beginning of an approved project, researchers are expected to create a full DMP within six months as a deliverable. You can create the full DMP by using the online planning tool. The RDM Team can provide you with feedback on your DMP.  

2.     At the end of the project, the final version of the “full DMP” (which of course may/should have been updated since its first version based on actual experiences) has to be submitted to the European Commission.

Other funders are also listed at the DMP website. 

More and more scientific publishers are developing research data management policies for authors. For example, increasingly, scientific publishers strongly encourage or even make in mandatory that all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper are based should be freely available to everyone. Another example is advice on which data repositories to use.

When you are ready to submit your manuscript, there are several publishing ways available, depending on the journal of your choice. Be sure to read the guidelines first.

In the case of a manuscript that is published before, it is never too late to share your research data associated with it.

Here is a no exhaustive list of Publishers with specific research data policies: