In order to unlock and increase the potential of digitalisation for a climate neutral mobility system, the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) defined the mission “Digitalisation: Operating infrastructure, mobility and logistic services in an efficient and climate friendly way”. An objective of this mission is to make data from the mobility system available and make use of it in an efficient way. In order to achieve this goal, it is central to have an overview about which data (categories) are operated with in relevant R&D projects.

A great amount of data is collected and used in FTI projects without categorising it in a systematic way. Hence, the experience gathered during the usage of the data gets lost while the gained knowledge regarding the necessary need for improvement of the data base as well as the analysis of the data are not passed on. On the basis of Data Management Plans (DMP), this data as well as the application of data and the gained experiences and knowledge can be documented in a systematic and structured way. Moreover, the usage and applicability of existing data pools are improved and gaps as well as limitations regarding the analysis of data become evident and can be addressed within future activities. Specific measures can be derived from the systematic display of collected and used data in Data Management Plans.

On the one hand, the DMP is a management tool that helps project managers to deal efficiently and systematically with project-generated data and to consider issues regarding data protection, copyrights and licensing. On the other hand, the publication of a DMP serves to give interested parties a good overview of which data and methods are already being used in the project.

A data management plan describes,

• which data is collected, acquired or generated in the project,how this data is dealt with in the project,
• which methods and standards are applied,
• how the data is secured and maintained in the long term, and
• whether it is planned to make data records available to third parties and enable them to use the data subsequently.

Benefits and Usage of DMPs

On the one hand, the DMP is a management tool that helps project managers to deal efficiently and systematically with project-generated data and to consider issues regarding data protection, copyrights and licensing. On the other hand, the publication of a DMP serves to give interested parties a good overview of which data and methods are already being used in the project.

In addition, a DMP can be used for the following:

• Present the usage of data in a clear and neat way,
• Increase the understanding of data in the course of the project,
• Visualization of projects and the project data landscape,
• Clearly show and convey data and methods to outsiders,
• Enable synergies across thematically similar projects and
• Potential savings in the field of project research.