ESRC researchers

As an ESRC award holder, under the ESRC research data policy, your contract requires you to make all research data created or repurposed during your award available for re-use and archiving via the ESDS. This applies to all kinds of ESRC awards - individual research grants, fellowships, Research Centres and awards under Research Programmes.

This means you should offer your data to the ESDS within three months of the end of your award. If data are accepted, you should make them available without delay to the ESDS for preparation for re-use and archiving. After processing, the research data are held at and disseminated by the UK Data Archive.

From April 2011, ESRC grant applicants who plan to generate data should prepare and submit a data management plan for their research projects as an integral part of the application. It is also the responsibility of applicants to incorporate data management as an indivisible part of the research project to increase the potential for data to be shared.

Guidance on managing and sharing data should be sought before, or at the start of your award, especially if you anticipate any difficulties in archiving your research data or making them available for re-use. You and your research team should be familiar with the information set out in the best practice guidance on Managing and Sharing Data before the start of fieldwork and before offering data to ESDS for deposit.

ESDS provides additional advice and support for ESRC Research Centres and ESRC Research Programmes.

Advice for ESRC applicants is available to help ESRC grant applicants answer specific questions on data preparation and archiving for their Joint electronic Submission (Je-S).

Our support staff can be contacted for advice at any stage of your project. Contact acquisitions@esds.ac.uk or telephone: +44 (0)1206 872974.