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  1. NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan
  2. Horizon Europe DMP template
  3. Sections most often underdeveloped in data management plans

Academy · Research Data, Analytics & AI · Data Management Plan Outlines

Data Management Plan Outlines: Section-by-Section Structure of the NIH and Horizon Europe Templates

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Horizon Europe use different data management plan (DMP) templates, yet in both the sections most often underdeveloped are the same: those describing how data will be found and reused by researchers who were not part of the study.

Pubrica AcademyWritten by a research data management specialist Reviewed bya data governance reviewer Published10 October 2026 Last checked10 October 2026 Reading time7 minutes Sources2 peer-reviewed

A data management plan is a funder-required document describing how a study’s data will be handled, shared and preserved. The two outlines below follow the structures used by the Data Management and Sharing Policy of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by the Horizon Europe data management plan (DMP) template, with the sections that applicants most often leave underdeveloped marked explicitly.

Learning objectives

  • The specific sections that the NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan requires.
  • The specific sections that the Horizon Europe DMP template requires, including its FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) sub-sections.
  • Which sections of each are most often left too generic to be useful.

Common misconceptions

  • “A data management plan is mostly a formality once a data-sharing intention is stated.” Both the NIH and the Horizon Europe templates ask for specific operational detail — named repositories, timing, access criteria and resourcing — rather than a general statement of good intentions; a plan that stops at “data will be shared” omits most of what the template requires.

NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan

NIH's current policy structure covers seven areas1.

1. Whether and how data will be shared
2. Timing of data sharing
3. Duration data will remain available
4. Limitations on, or justification for not, sharing specific data
5. Protections for human-participant data (de-identification, consent scope)
6. Data types and target repositories
7. Genomic Data Sharing Policy compliance, where applicable

Horizon Europe DMP template

Horizon Europe's template covers seven sections, with FAIR broken into four sub-sections2.

1. Data summary
2. FAIR data
   2.1 Findable (identifiers, metadata, discoverability)
   2.2 Accessible (access conditions, repository, authentication where relevant)
   2.3 Interoperable (data/metadata standards used)
   2.4 Reusable (licence, provenance, community standards followed)
3. Other research outputs (beyond the dataset itself)
4. Allocation of resources (who manages data, what it costs)
5. Data security
6. Ethics (consent scope, sensitive-data handling)
7. Other issues (any further relevant detail)

Sections most often underdeveloped in data management plans

Across both templates, three sections are most often completed generically rather than specifically: the repository or mechanism named for sharing (a placeholder such as “a suitable repository” instead of a named one), the resourcing section (who manages the data day to day, and at what cost, rather than leaving this unaddressed), and the limitations or justification section when data will not be fully shared (a vague reference to privacy instead of the actual legal or consent basis for the restriction).

Key points

Key points

The DMP templates of both NIH and Horizon Europe require specific, operational detail (a named repository, a stated timeline, explicit access criteria and resourcing), and the sections most often left generic are those that a funder’s reviewer checks first: where the data will be held, who manages them, and why any restriction on sharing is justified.

Practical application

Practical application

  1. The specific repository should be named, rather than a category of repository. "Data will be deposited in [specific repository name]" is checkable; "an appropriate public repository" is not.
  2. The person responsible for data management and the associated cost should be stated, even approximately. A funder's resourcing section exists because unresourced data management plans routinely fail to execute as written.
  3. The specific basis for any restriction on sharing should be given. The specific consent wording, legal basis or commercial-sensitivity reason should be cited, rather than a generic reference to “privacy concerns.”

Frequently asked questions

Funder templates generally scale to project size in practice, but both NIH and Horizon Europe expect the specific sections above to be addressed even briefly, rather than omitted for a smaller study.

Yes; DMPs are commonly treated as living documents that may be revised as the data requirements of a project become clearer, subject to the update process of the specific funder.

FAIR principles are referenced by many funders beyond Horizon Europe, though Horizon Europe's template is unusual in breaking FAIR into four explicit sub-sections that must each be addressed.

References

  1. National Institutes of Health. NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. read 10 October 2026. View NIH policy page
  2. European Commission. Horizon Europe Data Management Plan Template. read 10 October 2026. View Horizon Europe template

Every source above is a peer-reviewed article, a publisher’s record of one, or a standard issued by the body that owns it. Each carries the date it was last read. Where a standard moves, this article is revised rather than left up with a note.

How to cite this article

Pick your referencing style and copy it. Your university or target journal may vary the punctuation — check its guide if it has one.

Pubrica Academy. (2026, October 10). Data Management Plan Outlines: Section-by-Section Structure of the NIH and Horizon Europe Templates. Pubrica. https://pubrica.com/academy/templates/data-management-plan-outlines/

This article is written to be learned from. Cite it if you are referring to what it says; if you are using the evidence behind it, cite the sources listed above instead.

DMP specificity check

Use before submitting either template.

[ ] Named repository, not a category of repository
[ ] Sharing timeline stated (not just "will be shared")
[ ] Access criteria specified (open, or named application/approval process)
[ ] Resourcing named: who manages the data, roughly what it costs
[ ] Any sharing restriction justified with its actual legal/consent basis
[ ] (Horizon Europe only) all four FAIR sub-sections addressed separately

Pubrica AcademyWritten and maintained by Pubrica’s subject matter experts. Articles are revised when the underlying standards change, and each article states the date on which it was last reviewed.

How Pubrica can help

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