Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A consortium documents that its open-source software will be maintained for at least 3 years post-project by a designated partner, with infrastructure funded from institutional commitment.
- Is an instance
A research data centre commits to host the project's dataset for at least 10 years with a published preservation policy.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A short-lived demo website with no maintenance plan is the opposite of sustainability.
- Not an instance
Treating outputs as disposable at project end shows no sustainability planning.
Editorial commentary
Post-project sustainability is the broader planning question a funder increasingly expects an applicant to answer: what continues, and how, once dedicated project funding stops? It sits at proposal and reporting stage as a distinct planning requirement in its own right — Horizon Europe’s sustainability plans, NIH’s data-management and sharing expectations, and UKRI’s exploitation plans are the most commonly cited funder-specific forms it takes.
The questions it typically has to answer
Who will maintain project-built software once the grant ends and dedicated developer time disappears; how a dataset will remain accessible and usable in five or ten years; whether a community of practice the project convened will keep meeting without project funding to support it; whether there is a realistic route to follow-on funding; whether there is a plausible path to commercial sustainability for a technology output, potentially via consortium partners or institutional tech-transfer; and whether outputs will be formally transferred to a permanent host — an institution, a learned society, or an open-source foundation — rather than simply left where the project happened to leave them.
vs. output legacy planning
Post-project sustainability is the broader question set; output legacy planning is the more specific, execution-level practice of actually preserving and licensing tangible outputs (depositing data/software with a persistent identifier under an open licence) and arranging succession for non-static outputs such as a recurring workshop series or shared tool. A strong post-project sustainability answer at proposal stage should be backed by a concrete output legacy plan, not stop at the general intention.
Why it gets flagged
Lack of credible sustainability planning is a long-running critique of project-funded research generally — reviewers and funders have grown more willing to score a proposal down, or a final report as incomplete, when this question is answered only in general aspirational terms rather than with a specific plan, owner, and timeline.
References
- European Commission, Horizon Europe Sustainability Plans guidance; NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy.
Also known as
Sustainability plan · Post-grant sustainability · Long-term sustainability (project)
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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