This Data Management Plan outlines the principles, workflows, and responsibilities guiding the management of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), transponder based State of Polarisation (SOP), polarimeter based SOP, Radio Frequency Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (RF OTDR), SOP OTDR, and derived datasets produced within SUBMERSE, a Horizon Europe project developing a novel research instrument based on live submarine fibre-optic communication cables. Data management practices across the participating sites in Norway, Greece, and Portugal reflect varying operational contexts, sensitivities, and infrastructure ownership, resulting in different degrees of FAIR implementation. While raw data often remain locally stored due to security, privacy, and contractual constraints, all partners follow community standards (e.g., HDF5 for full resolution, miniSEED for decimated data, metadata following DAS-RCN recommendations) and progressively assign DOIs and publish derived datasets in open repositories when permissible. The project also develops machine-learning–based software tools, training materials, and a growing set of scientific publications and dataset releases. Throughout the project, strong emphasis is placed on ethics and security, with sensitive information removed prior to data sharing, site-specific policies implemented, and non-public security deliverables guiding best practices. Looking forward, SUBMERSE aims to increase automation, strengthen metadata harmonisation, support long-term preservation through domain repositories, and further enhance FAIRness as technical, organisational, and regulatory conditions evolve.
Mihai et al. (Thu,) studied this question.