The Consortium for the Social, Behavioural, Educational and Economic Sciences (KonsortSWD) as part of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) invites researchers to apply for RDM grants. RDM grants shall foster the preparation and provision of relevant and new data corpora for secondary use according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). RDM grants shall hence facilitate dissemination of qualitative or quantitative data corpora that have not been archived or released yet to the scientific community. Also, enriching of existing data corpora in terms of linkage to further data sources and thereby enlarging the analytical potential of data sources is possible. By collaborating with a Research Data Center (RDC), data owners can make their unique data available to the scientific research communities and benefit from RDCs professional data management services to enhance the visibility of their data and the impact of their research.

RDM grant proposals address the following range of topics: 1) concepts for anonymization for existing data, 2) (transnational) access to sensitive data for secondary users, and 3) high-quality metadata documentation. To meet the eligibility criteria for RDM grants, applicants

• must be holder of the data,
• must fulfill regulations concerning data protection and data dissemination for scientific purposes (e.g. consent declarations) in order to archive and publish the data by an RDC,
• shall outline the relevance of the data to the scientific community,
• must not have received funding for RDM purposes from other sources (no other public funding), and
• will receive funding in accordance with the funding regulations NFDI300 of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Applicants apply in tandem with an accredited RDC for funding for a research data management project. If no specialized RDC is available directly for individual researchers, applicants will receive a recommendation concerning a suitable RDC for the proposed project. The funding is aimed in particular at cross-location collaborations to provide new data products. Administration of RDM grants is provided by the coordination of the task area ›Data Access‹ of KonsortSWD located at the Leibniz-Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi).

Project proposals (max. 15,000 characters incl. space) contain a description of the data corpus (collection, content, existing documentation including wording of privacy policy and consent - if applicable) and formulate a concise project plan (milestones) for data preparation and data publication by an RDC. They also include a cost calculation and, if available, a list of publications based on the data corpus. If arrangements with an RDC exist, the project plan, cost calculation and a letter of interest (LOI) should be coordinated with the RDC.

RDM grant proposals will be reviewed by members of the FDI Committee and the KonsortSWD Advisory Board according to the following criteria: 1) the potential scientific contribution of the data and the added value created by the availability of the data according to the FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability), 2) the scientific quality of the RDM project, 3) the appropriateness of the requested funding amount for the FDM project.

Funded FDM projects can start their work from October 1, 2024 and must have completed it by August 31, 2025. Funding per application comprises a maximum of EUR 30,000 (plus 22% DFG program allowance, provided the applicant institution has adopted a guideline for the use of the program allowance). For the orientation of applicants, the results and final reports of the first funding round are published here. We expect projects to run for approximately six months. At the end of the term, projects are required to document their results, especially with regard to data publication that has taken place or is planned. Funding is provided within the framework of a transfer contract. A corresponding draft contract can be viewed here. In the context of the application, reference is made to the following templates for the application text and the calculation. In any case, it is recommended to involve the respective administrations in the application process at an early stage.

Please send your application to fdi-office(at)lifbi.de.

• Deadline for applications: September 30th, 2023
• Notice of granting: End of June 2024
• Start of funding period: October 1st, 2024 or later