5.2 Data Management and Access Plan (DMAP)

A Data Management and Access Plan (DMAP) is a document outlining how data will be managed during and after a research project. It provides a place to document the project’s commitments to optimizing data to adhere to FAIR principles thus aligning with best practices, enhancing the research’s quality and impact while promoting open and reproducible science.

It’s split into three sections:

• Getting Started – For completion during the grant application process
• Direction Setting – For completion once grant is approved (and updated regularly thought the program)
• Implementation – For completion during the execution of program

Download the data management and access plan template.

Save this to your project documents for future use.

At the concept note and grant proposal stage you need only focus on the Getting Started section.

• Data may be stored in inconsistent formats, making it harder to analyse and share.
• Data may be modelled or structured in ways that make it harder to use or reuse.
• Data may be of unknown provenance, making it harder to use.
• Data may not be published or shared, as there are no processes for doing that.
• Data may not be archived, as there are no plans for where to store data in the long term.
• Duplicated data might be collected, as previously collected assets are not discoverable.
• As well as many other possible challenges.

This page provides guidance for each of the questions in the Getting Started section.

To help you, after each question, there are some domain specific example answers for:

• Agriculture Production
• Livestock, and
• Crop Breeding.

Access the DMAP question guidance: Getting Started section

This guide will help you complete the Direction Setting part of the data management and access plan (DMAP). It focuses on setting actionable goals and outlining how you intend to achieve them.

While it is highly recommended that you complete the FAIR Potential Assessment (FPA) before proceeding, these instructions provide an alternate pathway for users without an FPA. To learn more about the FPA and its benefits, refer to the ‘How to assess FAIR potential‘ recipe.

• Open the Direction Setting section of your DMAP template and review the ten questions provided.
  Save a copy of the template to your project folder for future reference.
• Familiarize yourself with the five thematic areas: Support, Resourcing, Technical, Policy, and Culture. These themes represent common blockers to achieving FAIR data practices and are essential for structured goal setting.  More information can be found here.

Identify focus areas

Organize a discussion with project members to reflect on current practices related to each theme:

• Are there any known challenges or blockers to FAIR data in these areas?
• Where does the project excel, and where are there gaps?
• Consider the dimensions of People, Process, Technology, and Content in your reflections.

Based on this discussion, identify areas where improvement is needed or where stretch goals can be established.

Understanding the themes

Use the following prompts to guide your assessment of each theme:

• Support: Are clear roles and responsibilities defined for data management? Are individuals trained in FAIR principles?
• Resourcing: Is funding or infrastructure allocated for FAIR data practices? Are resources sustainable?
• Technical: Do current tools and systems support data interoperability and sharing? Are metadata standards in place?
• Policy: Are policies or guidelines for data management clearly documented? Do they align with FAIR principles?
• Culture: Is there a shared understanding and commitment to FAIR data across the organization? Are incentives for adopting FAIR practices in place?

Setting goals

For each identified area of improvement, set a stretch goal. Each goal should address the dimensions of People, Process, Technology, and Content where possible.

Use the structure below to write your goal statements:

• Action: What needs to be done? Use verbs like “assign,” “develop,” or “adopt.”
• Subject: What is the object of the action? (e.g., roles, processes, tools, or templates)
• Outcome: What result are you trying to achieve?
• Deadline: When will this goal be achieved?

Example Goal Statement

We will….

• People: assign roles for data management and ensure responsibilities are documented by March 2025
• Processes: develop and implement a process for documenting metadata in alignment with FAIR standards by June 2025
• Technology: adopt a metadata management tool to streamline data documentation and ensure interoperability by December 2025
• Content: create a library of metadata templates for project-wide use by July 2025

Write statements for each question.

• Address all ten questions in the DMAP template. For each, create statements that reflect your goals and planned actions.
• Use the examples above to ensure your statements are actionable, specific, and aligned with the themes.
• Once the ten statements are completed, we recommend sharing the DMAP with your FAIR advisor (email:fair@cabi.org) to update them and get feedback if needed.
• Save the approved document in a shared project folder accessible to all team members.

• The Implementation section of the data management and access plan prompts for specifics on achieving the goals created in the above Direction Setting section.
• It consists of a series of questions covering different aspects of daily workflows on the investment.
• You can download the data management and access plan template here.

Starting out

• When the project is underway, details of practical implementation need to be documented. Reopen your saved data management and access plan and navigate to the title ‘Implementation’.

Understanding the structure of the Implementation section

• This section is broken down into categories which relate to the questions previously answered in Direction Setting. Next to each question, you’ll see a theme that it relates to i.e. technical, policy, culture, support, resourcing. For more information about these themes, visit the assessing FAIR potential recipe. Refer to your statements in Direction Setting that are related to that theme if you get stuck answering a question.
• Your answers can be in a format you think is appropriate (text, table, bullet points etc) as long as the noted points have been considered and the question is clearly addressed and can be understood by stakeholder reading it.

Answer the questions considered most relevant to your project.

• Your FAIR advisor can assist you with question selection.  We recommend you answer the questions in an order that makes sense with your current understanding of data management within the project. The questions can also be answered according to the 5 themes (see question guidance page): culture, policy, resourcing, support and technical.
• This page provides guidance for each of the questions in the Implementation section. Where appropriate, there are references to steps in the FAIR process framework where the output of an activity may help inform your answer.

Save the document

• Once completed, save the document somewhere easily accessible by project members, and communicate with the team where it is. Provide a session to go through the document and anything pertinent, if possible, to ensure everyone understands and establish what support could be put in place to help team members with implementation