Effective January 25, 2023 NIH will implement a new policy to promote the sharing of scientific data. Sharing scientific data accelerates biomedical research discovery, in part, by enabling validation of research results, providing accessibility to high-value datasets, and promoting data reuse for future research studies.
NIGMS believes that, in general, most of its grantees are already meeting the NIH policy requirements and submitting a DMS plan with a grant application will formalize what PIs already do and make explicit the expectations of their scientific community for sharing of data. Most plans are expected to be concise (no more than 2 pages) and a Data Management and Sharing Plan Format Page is available.
NIH has developed a website with details about the policy, guidance and implementation. If you have questions, you can contact NIH DMS Policy Staff or your NIGMS PO.
Applicants will be required to submit a short DMS plan that describes how their lab will manage and share scientific data. We expect that most NIGMS grantees will not have to change their data management and sharing practices significantly from what they have already been doing. For example, most biomedical research publishers have had data sharing requirements in place for some time and applicants are already complying with them.
In general, NIGMS expects that its grantees will make data underlying peer-reviewed publications findable and accessible (within the legal constraints of human subjects data privacy and consent). In some cases, grantees might generate valuable, high-quality data that will not be published in a timely manner or at all, and in such instances these data sets should also be made findable and accessible. Expectations for the sharing of proprietary data may depend on the funding mechanism or source. You should discuss issues with the sharing of proprietary data with a Program Officer, or in the case of an SBIR/STTR application, the NIH SEED Office.
In general, the repositories grantees are already using, e.g., to comply with journal data sharing policies, will also be appropriate for complying with the NIH DMS policy. In addition, NIH maintains a list of some possible repositories that may be useful. This list is not exhaustive and applicants should also consult NIH’s guidelines for selecting a data repository.
We expect that most NIGMS grantees will not have to significantly change their data management and sharing practices and thus additional costs, if any, will be modest. If you feel that complying with NIGMS’ expectations for meeting the DMS policy will require significant additional expenditures, you may request these funds in your grant application and explain the need in the Budget Justification section. However, we advise you to discuss your plan with your program officer prior to submitting your application to ensure that you understand the Institute’s expectations.
