New NIH Requirement! Data Management and Sharing Plan Information
The 2023 Policy is entirely new. Previously, the NIH only required grants with $500,000 per year or more in direct costs to provide a brief explanation of how and when data resulting from the grant would be shared. Beginning in 2023, all grant applications or renewals that generate scientific data must now include a robust and detailed plan for how you will manage and share data during the entire funded period. This includes information on data storage, access policies/procedures, preservation, metadata standards, distribution approaches, and more. You must provide this information in a data management and sharing (DMS) plan. The DMS plan is similar to what other funders call a data management plan (DMP). The DMS plan will be assessed by NIH Program Staff (though peer reviewers can comment on the proposed data management budget). The Institute, Center, or Office (ICO)-approved plan becomes a Term and Condition of the Notice of Award.
What do I need to do?
A DMS Plan must be submitted as part of the funding application for all new and competing proposals/renewals that generate scientific data for January 25, 2023, and subsequent receipt dates (and as applicable to the funding opportunity announcement). The term scientific data is defined in the policy as “The recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings, regardless of whether the data are used to support scholarly publications.”
Below is a collection of resources, templates, examples, and links to support development of this component.
What do I need to submit as a part of my proposal?
If you plan to generate scientific data, you must submit a Data Management and Sharing Plan as part of the “Other Plans” section of your NIH application. An optional Data Management and Sharing Plan format page has been provided by the NIH to assist applicants with the preparation of this attachment.
The Plan is recommended not to exceed two pages and must include:
-Data Type
-Related Tools, Software, and/or Code
-Standards
-Data Preservation, Access, and Associated Timelines
-Access, Distribution, or Reuse Considerations
-Oversight of Data Management and Sharing.
See Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Elements of an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan for a detailed description of these Elements.
To draft the plan itself, we recommend the DMPTool (log in with UW NETID) using the NIH 2023 template (see “Write a DMS Plan” below). Additional guidance for completing each section will be added to the DMPTool. Find more information on DMPTool.
Checklist and Blank Template
- Data Management and Sharing Plan Checklist
- Data Management and Sharing Plan Plan-blank-format-page – TEMPLATE
DMS Plan Examples
- UW-Madison SMPH DMSP Example
- Annotated Example DMS Plan
- Human Genomic Data NHGRI Sample DMS Plan
- NIMH_Human Genomic_Template
- NIMH_Human MRI and Clinical Assessments_Template
- NIMH_Mouse Genomic_Template
- NIMH_Secondary Data Analysis_Template
- Technology Development_NHGRI Sample DMS Plan
- ICPSR Sample Plan
Presentation Slides on DMS Plans
Write a DMS Plan
DMPT Tool
It can be helpful to use a tool like DMPTool to create high-quality DMPs that meet the requirements of their specific funding agency. UW-Madison is a member institution with DMPTool, which is a free, open-source, online tool that helps researchers structure and draft data management plans as well as share their plans with others. DMPTool provides data management plan templates based on specific requirements of funders, but researchers should always follow the guidelines provided by program solicitation and the funder’s policy documents when creating a DMP. UW investigators can log in with their NETID email and use the ‘Request Feedback’ option after you’ve drafted your plan. Learn more about DMPTool.
UW-Madison Resources for Developing and Budgeting for a DMS Plan
(1) SMPH Informatics and Information Technology / Biomedical Informatics
SMPH Research Storage Options for Grants: This link provide data storage options for grants as well as fee structures needed for your budget justification:
Contact Jomol Mathew, SMPH Chief of Biomedical Informatics and Associate Dean for Informatics and Information Technology, for assistance in developing a DMS Plan: dmsp@med.wisc.edu.
(2) UW-Madison Information Technology ResearchDrive (DMS Plan Langauge)
The Campus ResearchDrive site includes language (and support) for the Data Management and Sharing Plan portion of a research grant application. There is suggestd language along with pricing information. According to thier website, the text below can be used as a template for referring to the handling of data storage in the Data Management Plan portion of a research grant application:
Suggested Language for Data Management Plan:
“Data will be stored on ResearchDrive, the University of Wisconsin campus-wide file storage service managed by the Division of Information Technology. This is a secure space with data protection and security features based on the NIST Cybersecurity framework including off-site backups, encryption, and monitoring by the University of Wisconsin Cybersecurity Operations Center. The space required for this project is approximately XX Terabytes. The university provides up to 5 TB of storage at no cost, however, should we need more space the cost is $200/TB/year.”
(3) UW-Madison Research Data Services
The UW-Madison RDS is available to help faculty develop DMS Plans through the following resources and services:
- Policy drop-ins and planned office hours
- Review and feedback of your data management plan
- Help to identify a repository to share your data