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) will become effective. The DMS policy requires all grant applications and proposals to include a DMS plan describing how scientific data generated or used in NIH funded research 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 NIH in annual reports.

The purpose for the new NIH 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 is creating a de novo system to support validation and tracking of data management and sharing plans. The institutional Data Ecosystem Portal for UTHealth Houston (DEPUT) will serve as the institutional research DMS plan catalog supported by UTHealth Houston. It will store persistent identifiers for the datasets in each plan to support DMS validation, tracking and compliance. For data sharing, NIH strongly encourages the use of established repositories 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 official policy see: NOT-OD-21-013 ‘Final NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing’

DMS PLAN

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.

DMS PLAN TOOLS

You can use the following two tools to assist you in creating a DMS plan. Word document templates with some pre-populated text or the DMPTool which has suggested language for a variety of sections. If using the DMPTool please see UTHealth specific guidance for element 6 (all plans) and element 4 (plans using the institutional repository only) below. 

  • NIH has developed an optional DMS Plan format page that aligns with the recommended elements of a DMS Plan. UTHealth has added some guidance to assist investigators in completing this template
  • NIH strongly encourages the use of established repositories to the extent possible. When using an established repository please use this Word Template.
  • DMPTool: Investigators can use this free customized template tool to assist in drafting a DMS plan. (DMPTool Tutorial)
  • When using the DMPTool, UTHealth recommends the following language:

                       Element 6: ‘Oversight of Data Management and Sharing’:  (ALL 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 reported to EVP/CAO and ODS for review. Gaps, if any, will be identified with appropriate correcting measures implemented. The PI will have overall responsibility for compliance with data collection, storage, and safety protocols. 

For full plan element details please see: NOT-OD-21-014 ‘Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Elements of an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan’

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 the NIH DMS policy, UTHealth is requiring PIs to include the following MINIMUM mandatory budget items in every NIH grant being submitted: DEPUT support fee $600/grant year and Data Librarian support fee $600/grant year.

Consider including the following items in budget justification:

This project includes the following costs associated with data management and sharing:

  1. Curating data and developing supporting documentation, such as formatting  for transmission to and storage at a selected repository for long-term preservation and access.
    Please include any support needed to curate and format your data for transmission to a repository. 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.
  2. Local data management and oversight:
    Please include the following description:

    Datasets resulting from this research will be cataloged with in the institutional Data Ecosystem Portal for UTHealth Houston (DEPUT). DEPUT is the institutional oversight management portal supported by UTHealth Houston for DMS validation, tracking and compliance. DEPUT support fee $600/grant year and Data Librarian support fee $600/grant year.

    In addition, please add costs as 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.
  3. Preserving and sharing data:
    Please include 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.
  4. Additional costs as related to specific project.

For additional details please see: NOT-OD-21-015 ‘Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Allowable Costs for Data Management and Sharing

FAQ's

LINKS TO OTHER RESOURCES

  • NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy Website
  • NOT-OD-21-013:  Final NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing
  • NOT-OD-21-014: Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Elements of an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan
  • NOT-OD-21-015: Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Allowable Costs for Data Management and Sharing
  • NOT-OD-21-016: Supplemental Information to the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing: Selecting a Repository for Data Resulting from NIH-Supported Research
  • NOT-OD-22-189: Implementation Details for the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy
  • DMPTool: Free online tool that walks researchers through the process of drafting a data management and sharing plan that aligns with funding agency requirements
  • Sample NIH DMS plans: These are provided for educational purposes to assist applicants with developing Plans
  • Writing a Data Management & Sharing Plan: Comprehensive guidance on writing a DMS plan that describes each of the recommended elements in detail

  • Guidance on selecting a data repository NIH encourages researchers to select quality data repositories that improve the FAIRness (Findable, accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable of the data.

CONTACT US

Need Assistance with NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy?

Several groups on campus will play a role in assuring UTHealth and its researchers are ready to meet these new policy changes. Please direct any questions you have to Amy.Hazen@uth.tmc.edu