NIH Data Management and Sharing Pilot

Purpose

In October 2020, NIH issued a new Policy for Data Management and Sharing, effective January 25, 2023. This new policy requires a Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMS Plan) for ALL NIH-funded projects, an expansion from the 2003 policy requirement for projects over $500K in annual direct costs to include a data sharing plan.

Proper data management and sharing are critical research practices to accelerate scientific advancement and support scientific integrity. However, significant variation in ICO-specific requirements will place substantial administrative burden on researchers to first navigate the varying requirements before they can even begin developing their DMS Plan.

Current Activities (Phase I)

  •  NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan Template Pilot
    • Test the effectiveness and usability of two DMS Plan templates developed in collaboration with representatives from participating ICs:
      • Alpha is a prescriptive template designed to limit the need for free text entry
      • Bravo aims to provide detailed prompts as well as more options to include free text responses as necessary.
    • Gather data from the researcher/faculty perspective as well as the NIH program perspective
    • Refine template(s) based on pilot data

Future Activities (Phase II)

  • Cost Policies
    • Establish common cost principles
    • Identify types of costs required
    • Determine how to identify additional/unforeseen costs that may be required to meet the spirit of the data sharing policy

Templates

The Alpha templates will not open in a web browser and must be downloaded and opened in Adobe.  Please select download and open from your downloads folder.  If you are having an issue selecting download via your browser of choice, update your browser settings to always download PDFs rather than the default option of opening them in the browser.

Pilot Templates now available in DMPTool!

DMPTool is a free, open source, community-supported application that can be used to create and share data management plans.  Anyone can use DMPTool to create data management plans; even if your institution does not participate, you can create your own free account.  For more information and to give the pilot templates a try, visit https://dmptool.org/.

For a preview of the templates in DMPTool, see the word doc versions below:

Given the structure of DMPTool, the pilot templates are available for all to use, not just organizations formally participating in the pilot.  If you give one of the pilot templates a try, please remember to share you feedback via the DMS Plan Submitter Survey linked below!

Resources

January 2023; NIH DMSP Pilot Planning Slides

February 2023; NIH DMSP Pilot Kickoff

Slides from previous FDP full-membership meetings found in the “Meetings & Listening Sessions” Page

Monday, July 17th, 10:30-12:00 Eastern

  • Recording available via https://sharing.nih.gov/about/learning

Wednesday, May 31st, 1-2:30 pm Eastern

FDP and our NIH colleagues are pleased to announce the below upcoming opportunities to share our experiences and feedback with each other regarding implementation of the new NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy and the FDP DMS Pilot. All times listed below are in Eastern Time:

Town Halls

FDP and our NIH colleagues are pleased to host several Town Hall sessions, which are intended to be listening sessions open to a broad audience. These sessions will focus on more targeted topics related to the NIH DMS Policy and the FDP DMS Pilot.  Town Halls will be recorded, and the recordings will be posted for those not able to join us live. Additional Town Hall times may be added after September 2023.

  • More Town Halls coming soon

Please contact the NIH DMSP team at NIHDMSPilot@thefdp.org