DMPTool Partners Receive Grant

Posted on by Nicholas Ferraz de Oliveira

Partners in the development of the popular Data Management Planning Tool (DMPTool), including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, were awarded a $590,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The grant will be used to fund further developments and improvements to the DMPTool including expanded functionality, training modules, documentation and the creation of an open source community to sustain the DMPTool in the future.

Other project partners include the UC Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library, the University of Virginia Library, and DataONE. The grant activity will occur in 2013.

Datasets are the currency of scientific and intellectual advancement. Despite this reality, most researchers are not aware of how best to manage their data. The DMPTool, launched in October 2011, is a freely available web application that addresses this need by guiding users through the process of creating a data management plan for a range of funders.

The current version of the DMPTool provides an easy to use interface that:

  • Helps users create data management plans for specific funding agencies,
  • Provides step-by-step instructions and guidance for how to manage data, and
  • Provides information about resources and services available to researchers to help fulfill data management requirements.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funding will support a second version, DMPTool2, which will:

  • Promote the practice of data management, sharing, and preservation, emphasizing the utility of best practices beyond meeting funder requirements.
  • Enable institutions to easily shape and exploit the DMPTool to meet local need.
  • Foster the emergence of an engaged open source community of DMPTool users and developers.
  • Maintain transparency in all project activities to facilitate community involvement.
  • Increase the depth and breadth of the tool’s coverage for funder and institutional data management requirements.
  • Enable collaboration and connect stakeholders to each other and institutional resources, including services, expertise and guidance.
  • Provide support for the full data management life cycle, including provision for collaborative plan authorship, and review and reporting by institutional administrators.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants to support original research and broad-based education related to science, technology, and economic performance; and to improve the quality of American life. For more information, visit www.sloan.org .

For questions about the DMPTool, the DMPTool2 and Illinois’ role in development, please contact Sarah Shreeves, IDEALS Coordinator and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at sshreeve@illinois.edu .

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