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Research Data Management: Funding Agency Requirements

Learn how to write a successful data management plan according to funding agency requirements.

Funding Agencies

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ's) Policy

Effective Date: October 2015

  • For sharing of data in digital format, all AHRQ-funded researchers will be required to include a data management plan for sharing final research data in digital format, or state why data sharing is not possible. Data management plans will be evaluated by AHRQ staff and peer review committees for merit while considering the values of long-term preservation, access, and the associated cost, and administrative burden. AHRQ expects the timely release and sharing of data to be no later than the acceptance for publication of the main findings from the final dataset. The specific time will be influenced by the nature of the data collected. Researchers will be directed to work with AHRQ staff and its contracted commercial repository to deposit data upon or prior to the embargo period. It may not be feasible to share all data; the costs and benefits of sharing data should be considered in data management planning. AHRQ intramural research is conducted using public use data. These data are also available to the public. AHRQ data that include personally identifiable data are available to the public in the AHRQ data center. AHRQ will attempt to make all research data available to the public by creating de-identified public use data files.
  • If an AHRQ-funded grant, cooperative agreement, contract or intramural research project transforms or links datasets, rather than producing a new set of data, the researchers will be required to submit a data management plan. If there are limitations associated with the data sharing agreements for the original data that preclude subsequent sharing, the research applicants must explain these limitations.
  • Data management plans will include:
    • A plan for protecting confidentiality and personal privacy.
    • A description of how scientific data in digital format will be shared, including a plan for long-term preservation and access to the data and the associated costs, or explanation of why data sharing is not possible.
    • AHRQ will promote the deposit of data in publicly accessible databases, where appropriate and available .

Centers for Disease Control Policy on Releasing and Sharing Data [PDF]

Effective Date: April 2013

  • Data in the policy includes:
    • Data collected by CDC using federal resources.
    • Data collected for CDC by other agencies or organizations (through procurement mechanisms such as grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements).
    • Data reported to CDC (e.g., by a state health department).
  • CIOs may release data without restrictions for public use through the CDC Information Center. Data may also be shared through CDC/ATSDR Scientific Data Repository and its data dissemination portal CDC WONDER (URL: http://wonder.cdc.gov/welcome.html ) 
  •  All released data must have documentation that shows the conditions under which the data were collected, what the data represent, the extent of the data’s completeness and accuracy, and any potential limitations on their use. Careful documentation increases the likelihood that secondary data users will interpret data correctly. Recommended data documentation elements are detailed on page 19 (Appendix D) of the document linked above. 

Department of Defense’s Policy [PDF]

Effective dates: October 2017 ​

  • Researchers must provide a DMP. Digitally formatted scientific data sets should be stored and publicly accessible to search, retrieve, and analyze; publicly releasable primary data, samples, and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work should be publicly accessible at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time.
  • Data underlying a DOD-funded journal publication must be made freely available when the article is first published.
  • Metadata for each data set, including subject, characteristics, and location, will be shared via DTIC’s DoD data set catalog.
  • Data may be preserved and shared via disciplinary, institutional, or generic repositories.
  • The costs of sharing and managing data can be included in the funds requested in applications.

Department of Energy (DOE) Policy for Digital Research Data Management

Effective dates:  Oct 2015 (for DMPs),  2018 TBD (for data)

  • All proposals submitted to the DOE Office of Science for research funding must include a Data Management Plan (DMP).
  • Suggested elements to include in a DMP
    • Data types and sources
    • Content and format
    • Data sharing and data preservation
    • Protection
    • Rationale
  • DMPs should provide a plan for making all research data displayed in publications resulting from the proposed research open, machine-readable, and digitally accessible to the public at the time of publication.
  • Researchers are encouraged to deposit data in existing community or institutional repositories or to submit these data to the article publisher as supplemental information.
  • DOE Data ID service: To facilitate the citation of data products, the DOE encourages the use of persistent identifiers such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). In most cases, the DOE can provide DOIs free of charge for datasets resulting from DOE-funded research through its Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) DataID Service.

Institute of Education Science's Policy

Effective Date: FY2016

  • In FY2016, IES included a requirement for data sharing. Grantees are required to provide access to the final research data from grants in a timely fashion, and no later than the time of publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly publication.
  • Applications must include a data management plan that describes the method of data sharing, types of data to be shared, and documentation that will be created to promote responsible use of data. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Policy [PDF]

Effective date: October 2015

  • For data, NASA plans to develop an inventory/catalog of data resulting from NASA funding.  NASA is also exploring the development of a research data commons for storing and sharing data, but nothing specific at this point.
  • All proposals or project plans submitted to NASA for scientific research funding will be required to include a Data Management Plan (DMP) that describes whether and how data generated through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved (including timeframe), or explains why data sharing and/or preservation are not possible or scientifically appropriate  At a minimum, DMPs must describe how data sharing and preservation will enable validation of published results, or how such results could be validated if data are not shared or preserved.
  • DMPs must provide a plan for making research data that underlie the results and findings in peer‐reviewed publications digitally accessible at the time of publication or within a reasonable time period4 after publication.  This includes data (or how to access data) that are displayed in charts and figures. This does not include preliminary data, laboratory notebooks, drafts of scientific papers, plans for research, peer review reports, communications with colleagues or physical objects, such as laboratory specimens. This requirement could be met by including the data as supplementary information to the published article, through NASA archives, or other means. The published article should indicate how these data can be accessed.

National Endowment for the Humanities Data Management Policy [PDF]

  • The NEH requires applicants for grants administered by its Office of Digital Humanities to submit data management plans (no more than 2 pages) with their proposals.
  • Data Management Plan requirements
    • Expected data
    • Period of data retention
    • Data formats and dissemination
    • Data storage and preservation of access
Effective Date: October 2013
  • requires investigators submitting a research application requesting $500,000 or more of direct costs in any single year to NIH on or after October 1, 2003 are expected to include a plan for sharing final research data for research purposes, or state why data sharing is not possible.
  • Data sharing should occur in a timely fashion. NIH expects the timely release and sharing of data to be no later than the acceptance for publication of the main findings from the final dataset. 
  • Data Sharing Plan (to follow immediately after the Research Plan Section): The precise content of the data-sharing plan will vary, depending on the data being collected and how the investigator is planning to share the data. Applicants who are planning to share data may wish to describe briefly the expected schedule for data sharing, the format of the final dataset, the documentation to be provided, whether or not any analytic tools also will be provided, whether or not a data-sharing agreement will be required and, if so, a brief description of such an agreement (including the criteria for deciding who can receive the data and whether or not any conditions will be placed on their use), and the mode of data sharing (e.g., under their own auspices by mailing a disk or posting data on their institutional or personal website, through a data archive or enclave). Investigators choosing to share under their own auspices may wish to enter into a data-sharing agreement.​
  • Genomic Data Sharing Policy

National Institute of Standards and Technology Policy

Effective Date: October 2014

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Policy [PDF]

Effective date: January 2016 

  • The Data Management Plan (DMP) should include a repository where the data will be deposited, which may include existing NOAA data centers.
  • Data must be made available with article publication for supporting data, or within one year of collection for other data.

National Science Foundation's Policy

Effective Date: 

  • The NSF requires all grant proposals to include a supplementary document of no more than two pages labeled “Data Management Plan”. This supplementary document should describe how the proposal will conform to NSF policy on the dissemination and sharing of research results.
  • To assist investigators, the National Science Foundation is providing FAQs and guidance documents from specific Directorates that address compliance. The entire policy, FAQ list, and links to Directorate information are available at http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp. For full policy implementation, see the Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II.C.2.j.

Data Management Plan for NIFA-Funded Research Projects [PDF] (April 2015)

  • Effective January 1, 2016, USDA/NIFA research program requests for applications will begin to require data management plans as part of new proposals. The authors of the Implementation Plan noted that since “public access to federally supported research data is a new concept for many researchers," a focus on outreach, education, and training is essential.

Policy and Implementation Plan for Public Access to Scientific Publications and Digital Data from Research Funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs [PDF] 

Effective Date: December 31, 2015

  • VA will require that all VA-funded research include a written data management plan to be evaluated for merit as part of the proposal review and approval process. The data management plan for VA-funded research must describe how and where data resulting from the research will be made available to the public and must specifically include how any data underlying scientific publications will be made available for discovery, retrieval, and analysis, including which materials will be available in machine readable formats. Investigators will be held accountable for sharing publications and data in accordance with the approved data management plan. Failure to implement the approved plan may result in loss of current or future funding or other restrictions on the investigator’s research activities.
  • Many VA research studies are supported by funding from non-VA entities such as NIH and industry sponsors. Regardless of funding source, all VA investigators will be required to include in their research proposals a data management plan that describes how, where, and the extent to which they will make the data and results of their research available to the public, including which materials will be available in machine readable formats.