Course Overview
0.4 Curriculum
The course will cover:
- Motivations behind the new policy
- Overview of the new policy requirements and how it may affect you
- Suggestions about where to share your data
- Recommendations about how to budget for your data
- Guidance about how to write a DMS plan
- Information on how to submit the DMS plan to funding agencies
- Guidance on how to update a DMS plan after submission or funding
- General tips and frequently asked questions
0.5 Overall Takeaways
Why this change? As of January 23, 2023, the NIH is requiring all grant proposals include a Data Management and Sharing Plan to aid in the transparency and reproducibility of NIH-funded research.
Does this apply to me? This will apply to most NIH grants that create data (regardless of funding level), although some grant mechanisms and some data are exempt. It is not required to share all data, however a justification is required. Reasons not to share that are acceptable may be ethical, technical, or legal.
Where should I share my data? The NIH has lists of suggested repositories, to help you find appropriate repositories for your data. If there is not an appropriate repository, you can share your data at an institutional (if available) or generalist repository.
How do I budget this? You may request funds for data management and sharing as direct costs (including personnel costs). Infrastructure costs should only be included as indirect costs.
How do I write my plan? Your plan should be < 2 pages (without hyperlinks) and include sections on data type; tools, software, and code; standards; data preservation, access, and timelines; access, distribution, and reuse considerations; and oversight. You may be able to change your plan in the just-in-time process or during regular reporting intervals. Changes require approval.
Will my plan influence my grant score? Although the Data Management and Sharing Plan is a mandatory part of most grant proposals, it will not be shared with reviewers and thus will not influence your score, however the budget will be visible to reviewers.
Final Considerations
This is a new policy for the NIH and they are expecting to have some growing pains. While they don’t currently have specific expectations, the NIH has stated they will learn from the process as it happens along with the scientists submitting grant proposals under the new policies. In general, it’s best to be mindful of what is actually feasible when it comes to managing and storing your data and try not overstate what you might be able to do.
