DAMAP is an open source tool co-developed by TU Wien and TU Graz that supports researchers in managing both data and code along the research data lifecycle. It is based on the concept of machine-actionable data management plans (maDMPs) and aims to simplify the creation of data management plans (DMPs) for researchers.
The tool integrates with an institution's existing databases — such as project management and HR systems (CRIS applications) — to automatically pull relevant information into a DMP, increasing accuracy and reducing the effort required to complete one. This saves DMP authors from having to enter the same data multiple times.
DAMAP guides users through all sections of a DMP in ten steps by asking questions, suggesting text, and providing helpful information. It exports a pre-filled DMP as a Word document that can be customized and submitted to European and national research funders. Supported export templates include FWF, Horizon Europe, and Science Europe. Additionally, DAMAP is compatible with the RDA recommendation on machine-actionable DMPs and offers a JSON export.
The content and structure of DAMAP is based on Science Europe's Core Requirements for Data Management Plans.
DAMAP is available under the MIT license and can be self-hosted by any institution. Alternatively, TU Wien offers a cloud-hosted version of DAMAP, allowing institutions to get started without running their own infrastructure. For more information on both options, visit damap.org.
DAMAP is a typical Three-Tier-Architecture project composed out of the database tier and the following two projects residing in separate source code repositories.
- damap-backend: maDMPs backend project
- damap-frontend: maDMPs frontend project
Also there are some components that you should already have at your institution that you can integrate with DAMAP, in order to make this tool your own:
- Authentication service with OpenID support (e.g. Keycloak)
- CRIS system (system managing research projects)
- System managing researcher data
The actively supported database is Postgres and to a lesser extent Oracle. Other databases could be used as well, but they may not be tested.
DAMAP can be deployed with Docker Compose or on Kubernetes/OpenShift with Helm. It can be run as a standalone installation for a single institution or in a multitenant setup where one instance serves multiple universities or organizations.
For a local development or demo setup, run:
docker compose up -dThe default setup works out of the box and starts DAMAP with PostgreSQL, Keycloak, API mock services, Gotenberg, backend, frontend, and nginx.
The frontend is available at http://localhost:8085/ with the sample users user/user and admin/admin.
For details, see the development Docker setup and the production Docker setup. The default development setup does not require an environment file; example.env documents the supported environment variables for custom and production Docker Compose configuration.
For Kubernetes and OpenShift deployments, use the DAMAP Helm chart:
The chart repository contains the installation commands, configuration values, and deployment notes.
For local backend development, read the development guidelines in DEVELOPMENT.md.
To make use of the powers of DAMAP, customisations should be added to integrate it in your system environment. Common customisations include CRIS systems to get up-to-date person and project data, color theme of the interface and DMP templates. Our Reference Manual documents the steps needed in order to adapt DAMAP to your needs.
Before contributing code, please carefully read the contribution guidelines in the CONTRIBUTING.md file and the developer documentation in the DEVELOPMENT.md file.
The project is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE file for further information.
DAMAP has received funding from FAIR Data Austria, SharedRDM, and the EC project OSTrails.