NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy Impacts Proposals and Awards

To: Faculty Submitting NIH Proposals or with Active NIH Awards
From: Joseph R. Haywood, Ph.D., Asst. Vice President, Office of Research and Innovation
Twila Reighley, Assoc. Vice President for Research, Sponsored Programs Administration
Date: July 29, 2022
Re: NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy impacts proposals and awards

NIH’s new Policy for Data Management and Sharing goes into effect on January 25, 2023. This policy requires researchers to prospectively plan for how scientific data will be preserved and shared through submission of a Data Management and Sharing Plan and to implement the approved plan. Plans should explain how scientific data will be managed and describe which scientific data and accompanying metadata will be shared in common repositories. It applies to all NIH-funded research that directly results in the generation of scientific data, regardless of funding level or mechanism. This expands upon NIH’s current data sharing requirement that applies to projects with $500,000 or more in direct costs in any single year.

An MSU workgroup comprised of individuals from various campus units has been convened to consider practices and promote resources to prepare for the new requirements. The group is currently focusing on helping MSU faculty meet these requirements. Faculty should begin considering how these requirements will impact their future projects and planning for associated costs related to data management and storage in their proposed budgets for any competing applications submitted to the NIH on or after January 25, 2023.

To help in this process, there are three upcoming webinars about the requirements. Two will be presented by NIH, and information can be found at: NIH data sharing webinar. A third webinar will be presented at MSU. The webinars will be:

• August 11th: NIH will present “Understanding the New NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy” in which they will discuss policy expectations, preparation of data sharing plans, and considerations for sharing data responsibly.
• September 22nd: NIH will present “Diving Deeper into the New NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy” in which they will start addressing details related to privacy issues for human participants and reasonable limitations on data sharing.
• MSU is planning for a session in early October to address practical issues related to data management plans and deposition of data in data repositories. Best practices for basic science and human participant studies will be discussed.
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In the coming days, we will continue to provide links to resources and tools to help faculty successfully meet these requirements. A good first step will be to visit the NIH Data Sharing website and watch the NIH DMS introductory video.

We are also working with national organizations and with our counterparts at other institutions to develop resources and share best practices for supporting researchers in complying with the requirements of the policy. Please reach out to Joseph R. Haywood (haywoo12@msu.edu), Twila Reighley (reighley@msu.edu) or Erin Schlicher (schlic11@msu.edu) with any questions, concerns, or suggestions.

Thank you for your attention to this new NIH policy.