Creating an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan

In the last element of an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP), document who will oversee the plan itself and compliance with it. Keep in mind the following:

• In most cases, this will be the PI. The PI could also appoint a team member in a data management role.
• The Northwestern University Office of Sponsored Research offers this guidance for this plan element:
  • Proposal Submission Guidance: Regarding who (at the institution) will be responsible for oversight of compliance with the accepted DMS Plan, the recommended response is a statement such as "Monitoring and compliance will be responsibility of PI and specific project staff as indicated in the project plan, budget, and budget justification."
• Explain how compliance will be managed/monitored, and how frequently
• Support for the costs of data management can be written into the grant as allowable costs. In most cases, the DMSP is part of the funding application's budget justification.
  • NIH Guidance: Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Allowable Costs for Data Management and Sharing
• Budgeting / Cost Estimators for Data Management and Sharing
  • National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine's (NASEM) guide: Forecasting Costs of Biomedical Data Preservation: A User Guide for Biomedical Researchers, as well as the NASEM's Ad Hoc Committee for Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data, whose products include:
    • Report: Life-Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data: The Challenge of Forecasting Costs
    • Cost Drivers Workbook (1) (and related quick video)
    • User Guide for Biomedical Researchers
  • NIMH Data Archive's Data Submission Cost Estimation Tool (a spreadsheet that can be adapted for any project's data management costs)
  • Harvard University's NIH DMSP Budgeting & Application Instructions Tip Sheet (2)
• Budget requests cannot include infrastructure costs that are included as part of institutional overhead. This includes facilities and administrative costs, as well as routine research fees such as data collection or access fees.

1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Life-Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data: The Challenge of Forecasting Costs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25639.

2. Harvard University. 2023. NIH DMSP Budgeting & Application Instruction Tip Sheet. https://researchadmin.hms.harvard.edu/news/nih-dmsp-budgeting-application-instruction-tip-sheet