Use DMP Assistant when applying to Canadian funding agencies
DMP Assistant is a free, open-source Canadian tool for preparing data management plans (DMPs). The tool follows best practices in data stewardship and walks researchers step-by-step through key questions about data management. DMP Assistant is designed to meet the requirements of these Canadian funders:
- Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
DMP Assistant is available in both English and French. It allows you to create and export your DMP. Portage has created some excellent exemplars for numerous disciplines and UBC has a general template for use by UBC researchers.
- UBC campus-wide DMPs Working Group has prepared two custom templates for our researchers to create a data management plan:
- UBC Simplified Template (Pre-Funding Phase): This short template and guidance are designed to be used when a research team applies for grant funding and needs to plan their research data lifecycle. The UBC simplified template has been updated by the campus-wide Data Management Plans Working Group (DMPs WG) in May 2025.
- UBC Comprehensive Template (Post-Funding Phase): This detailed template is designed to be used after a research team obtains grant funding and needs to plan its research data lifecycle. The UBC comprehensive template has been updated by the campus-wide Data Management Plans Working Group (DMPs WG) in May 2025.
Guides for DMP Assistant:
- Quick Guide for Creating Simplified DMPs for Pre-Award Phase (Grant Applications)
- Hands-on, self-paced, step-by-step, computationally-reproducible UBC DMP training modules in Research Commons’ GitHub
- DMPs – Exemplars
- The Portage Network provides access to free webinars and training modules on data management and DMP Assistant.
Note: UBC Library can provide DMP Assistant access via UBC CWL as of October 2024. If you have an existing account on DMP Assistant, you can link it to your CWL by logging in, going to your name on the top right, then clicking on Edit Profile > Institutional credentials > Link accounts
Need help? Contact research.data@ubc.ca