Requirements on Research Data
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Data management plans (DMP)
Since April 2023, the SNSF requires a data management plan once the project proposal has been approved. The additional financial resources for data management have to be submitted in the application of the project, however.
Open Research Data
The SNSF requires that research data arising from a research project be archived and made available to other researchers, provided that there are no legal, ethical or copyright reasons, confidentiality clauses or similar that prevent this.
FAIR repositories
The SNSF expects researchers to share their data according to the FAIR principles on publicly accessible, digital repositories. It is important to note that the FAIR principles do not require researchers to share all their data without any restrictions.
the SNSF's explanation of the FAIR Data Principles
SNSF examples of FAIR repositories
Checklist to identify repositories complying with the FAIR Data Principles
Researchers should check if the repository is compatible with the FAIR Data Principles. The answer to each of the questions below must be "yes" .
- Are datasets (or ideally single files in a dataset) given globally unique and persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI)?
More on identifiers - Does the repository allow the upload of intrinsic (e.g. author's name, content of dataset, associated publication, etc.) and submitter-defined (e.g. definition of variable names, etc.) metadata?
- Is it clear under which licence (e.g. CC0, CC BY, etc.) the data will be available, or can the user upload/choose a licence?
More on licenses - Are the citation information and metadata always (even in the case of datasets with restricted access) publicly accessible?
- Does the repository provide a submission form requesting intrinsic metadata in a specific format (to ensure machine readability/interoperability)?
- Does the repository have a long-term preservation plan for the archived data?
As a researcher at UZH, you own copyright of your data and not the University of Zurich.
This is regulated in the "Personalverordnung" (§ 65) of UZH.
Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe is the EU's framework program to promote research and innovation. It obliges its researchers to ensure open access to their publications and their research data. Since April 2025 Switzerland has the status of an associated member with regard to "Horizon Europe".
Information by the Federal State about Switzerland's participation in the Horizon package
Support by UZH
The Open Science Services offer support in writing the data management plan and in sharing and publishing data.