NIH Issues New Resources for Data Management and Sharing

By: Yvette Seger
Thursday, February 10, 2022
To help the research community prepare for the January 2023 implementation of its Data Management and Sharing Policy, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a series of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to clarify agency expectations. The initial FAQs address policy scope, parameters for managing and sharing scientific data, considerations for data derived from human participants, and compliance and enforcement, and will be updated on an ongoing basis. Supplemental information on the elements of a data management and sharing plan, allowable costs, and guidelines for selecting a data repository were released with the final policy in October 2020.

FASEB is also helping researchers prepare for the new policy through DataWorks!—a new initiative that brings the biological and biomedical research communities together to advance human health through data sharing and reuse. Among its latest activities is the DataWorks! Data Management Plan (DMP) Challenge. A partnership with the University of California’s DMPTool, the Research Data Access and Preservation Association, and the Network of National Libraries of Medicine (NNLM), the challenge incentivizes researchers to test a DMP template through expert reviews and up to 10 $500 cash awards to recognize exemplary DMPs. To encourage researchers to work with their institution’s data librarian, NNLM is offering a matching prize for an outstanding DMP developed with librarian input. Submissions are due February 15.