Sponsored Projects Administration

UTHEALTH GUIDANCE FOR DMS POLICY

OVERVIEW 

On January 25th, 2023, the new Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy announced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) became effective. This policy has been adopted by other sponsors. The DMS policy requires all grant applications and proposals to include a DMS plan describing how scientific data generated will be managed and shared. Both new and competing renewals will need to: include a DMS plan; have costs accounted for in the budget; and have progress shared with the sponsor in annual reports.

The purpose for the DMS policy is to foster good data stewardship and promote a cultural shift where good data management and data sharing are the norm. Proper data management and sharing enables the scientific community to verify, extend, and build upon research results.

To support the institution and its investigators in their efforts of data stewardship, UTHealth Houston has created a de novo system to support validation and tracking of data management and sharing plans. The institutional Data Ecosystem Portal for UTHealth Houston (DEPUT) serves as the institutional research DMS plan catalog supported by UTHealth Houston. DEPUT stores persistent identifiers for the datasets in each plan to support DMS validation, tracking and compliance. For data sharing, the use of established repositories is encourage to the extent possible. There are a variety of publicly available repositories as well as a listing of NIH-supported repositories into which investigators can deposit their data.

For the NIH policy see: NOT-OD-21-013 ‘Final NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing’

Several other sponsors now require data management and sharing plans. Additional detail regarding NIH <Click Here> and other sponsors <Click Here> DMS plan formatting can be found below.

NIH DMS PLAN GUIDANCE

All new and competing NIH grant proposals must include a plan based on the NIH DMS form template. The plan requires six elements including: (1) data type; (2) related tools, software, and/or code; (3) data standards; (4) data preservation, access, and associated timelines; (5) access, distribution, and reuse considerations; (6) oversight of data management and sharing.

The NIH provides comprehensive guidance on writing a DMS plan that describes each of the elements in detail within the Writing a Data Management & Sharing Plan section. Below is UTHealth Houston specific guidance regarding the format of the DMS Plan.

DMS PLAN TOOLS

You can use a variety of tools to write your DMS plan. UTHealth Houston requires you to include specific language in element 6 related to institutional oversight, this language can be found below. 

Element 6: ‘Oversight of Data Management and Sharing’:  (ALL NIH DMS plans) 

The Office of the Executive Vice President & Chief Academic Officer (EVP/CAO) and The Office of Data Science (ODS) at UTHealth Houston will provide joint institutional oversight for the DMS plan. Datasets resulting from this research will be cataloged with in the institutional DEPUT. DEPUT is the institutional oversight management portal supported by UTHealth Houston for DMS validation and tracking. Project Contact PI will update data status in DEPUT, and the institutional office of Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) will perform annual validation according to the DMS plan. Validation results will be maintained in DEPUT. Noncompliance with the DMS plan will be identified with appropriate correcting measures implemented. The PI will have overall responsibility for compliance with data collection, storage, and safety protocols.

  • NIH has developed an optional DMS plan format page that aligns with the recommended elements of a DMS plan. We have inserted the institutional guidance for element 6 in the NIH recommended template here Word Template. 
  • DMPTool: Investigators can use this free customized template tool to assist in drafting a DMS plan. (DMPTool Tutorial)
  • Here is a collection of sample plans sorted by NIH Institute or Center.
  • Here are some sample plans from recently funded NIH grants
    • Sample DMS A
    • Sample DMS B                      

BUDGET/ JUSTIFICATION

Costs associated with data management and sharing incurred during the performance period can now be charged as direct costs. You must include a brief justification of the proposed activities outlined in the DMS Plan that will incur costs. Include a brief summary of type and amount of scientific data to be preserved and shared, the name of the established repository(ies) to be used, and general cost categories. The recommended length of the justification should be no more than half a page. This justification must be labeled as "Data Management and Sharing Justification".

To support institutional compliance and monitoring of DMS policies, UTHealth Houston requires PIs to include the following MINIMUM mandatory budget in every grant which requires a DMS plan. $1200 per grant year to support annual institutional monitoring of the DMS plan.

In addition to the mandatory institutional monitoring fee, there may be additional costs associated with data management and sharing. Please consider including the following items in the budget justification:

  • Support needed for curating data and developing supporting documentation, such as formatting for transmission to and storage at a selected repository for long-term preservation and access. If you work with large data sets and employ a data manager, please describe and assign a portion of their effort here with this purpose.
  • Data management costs needed for your specific proposal such as repository fees; formatting data according to accepted community standards; de-identifying data; preparing metadata to foster discoverability, interpretation, etc.
  • Costs associated with preserving and sharing data including appropriate repository fees or cloud storage fees for data storage necessary for making data available and accessible. As guidance, if a public repository in not available to you and you plan to make use of IT Security approved CLOUD storage, please estimate a budget based on AWS Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) estimated cost of $300/Terabyte per grant year or describe the cost of your alternate solution.
  • Additional costs as related to specific project.

OTHER SPONSORS DMS PLAN GUIDANCE

Other sponsors have begun to require DMS plans as part of the proposal, with some following NIH formatting and others providing detailed formatting of their own.

Please follow the format provided in the sponsors proposal guidelines. (We will work to share more detailed guidance for several common sponsors soon.)

If a DMS plan is required per the sponsor, the institution will house the plan in DEPUT. To support institutional compliance and monitoring of DMS policies, UTHealth Houston requires PIs to include the following MINIMUM mandatory budget in every grant which requires a DMS plan. $1200 per grant year to support annual institutional monitoring of the DMS plan.

Please include the following language regarding institutional oversight:

The Office of the Executive Vice President & Chief Academic Officer (EVP/CAO) and The Office of Data Science (ODS) at UTHealth Houston will provide joint institutional oversight for sharing of data as outlined in this plan. DEPUT is the institutional oversight management portal supported by UTHealth Houston for data management/ sharing validation and tracking. Project Contact PI will update data status in DEPUT, and the institutional office of Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) will perform annual confirmation of data deposition to a repository as indicated in this plan. Validation results will be maintained in DEPUT. Noncompliance with the DMS plan will be identified with appropriate correcting measures implemented. The PI will have overall responsibility for compliance with data collection, storage, and safety protocols.

Additional information for these sponsors coming soon.

DATA SHARING AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Please read the attached statement regarding data sharing and intellectual property.

FAQ's

LINKS TO OTHER RESOURCES

CONTACT US

Need Assistance with NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy?

Several groups on campus will play a role in assuring UTHealth Houston and its researchers are ready to meet these new policy changes. Please direct any questions you have to [email protected]