Data Management Plans
Data sharing plans and data management plans are required by some funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). University of Minnesota Libraries provide a compilation of data sharing and management guidelines from major funding agencies, including the the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation now requires a data management plan (DMP) to be submitted with each grant proposal.
Overview
- A DMP is a supplementary document that is limited to two pages.
- The purpose of the DMP is to describe how the grant proposal will conform to the NSF Data Sharing Policy, which states, "Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants." The NSF Award & Administration Guide (AAG) Chapter VI.D.4 provides the complete Dissemination and Sharing of Research Results policy.
- Individual NSF directorates and divisions have specialized DMP requirements.
- The general DMP guidelines in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) Chapter II.C.2.j may also be helpful to review.
- The DMP will be reviewed under the intellectual merit criteria, the broader impacts criteria, or both.
- Other Resource: NSF Data Management & Sharing FAQ
Biological Sciences Directorate
The Biological Sciences Directorate has specialized DMP requirements. Check out the NSF Biological Sciences DMP page for resources and templates from UIUC and other libraries.
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health expect a data sharing plan to be submitted with an application for $500,000 or more in direct costs in any single year.
Overview
- The data sharing plan is expected to be about one paragraph, which does not count towards the application page limit.
- The purpose of the data sharing plan is to describe how final research data will be shared, keeping in mind NIH's policy that "Data should be made as widely and freely available as possible while safeguarding the privacy of participants, and protecting confidential and proprietary data." The Final NIH Statement on Sharing Research Data is available.
- NIH's Data Sharing Policy and Implementation Guidance provides practical information about issues that could be addressed in a data sharing plan and even provides data sharing plan examples.
- The data sharing plan will be assessed by program staff for appropriateness and adequacy; it will not be a factor in the determination of scientific merit or priority score.
- Other Resources: NIH Data Sharing FAQ | NIH Data Sharing Brochure (PDF)
