[RITL] Fw: Outreach: NIH issues a seismic mandate: share data publicly

[Chuck Forsyth]

FYI, This is relevant to our researchers.

________________________________
From: University of California Information Technology Policy & Security <UCITPS-L at LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU> on behalf of Robert Smith <Robert.Smith at UCOP.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2022 3:30 PM
To: UCITPS-L at LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU <UCITPS-L at LISTSERV.UCOP.EDU>
Subject: Outreach: NIH issues a seismic mandate: share data publicly


Hello ITPS,



Good afternoon.



FYI - This may have a lasting impact on research IT and overall infrastructure for research computing.



NIH issues a seismic mandate: share data publicly



The data-sharing policy could set a global standard for biomedical research, scientists say, but they have questions about logistics and equity.



In January 2023, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will begin requiring most of the 300,000 researchers and 2,500 institutions it funds annually to include a data-management plan in their grant applications — and to eventually make their data publicly available.



The mandate, in part, aims to tackle the reproducibility crisis in scientific research. Last year, a US$2-million, eight-year attempt to replicate influential cancer studies found that fewer than half of the assessed experiments stood up to scrutiny. Efforts to tally the cost of irreproducible research in the United States have found that $10 billion to $50 billion is spent on studies that use deficient methods, a cost that is mostly fronted by public funding agencies.



Irreproducible studies not only waste taxpayers’ money, says Lyric Jorgenson, the acting associate director for science policy at the NIH, but also undermine public trust in science. “We want to make sure that we’re making good on the nation’s investment and fostering transparency and accountability in research,” she says.



A seismic shift



Under the new policy, which will go into effect on 25 January, all NIH grant applications for projects that collect scientific data must include a ‘data management and sharing’ (DMS) plan that contains details about the software or tools needed to analyze the data, when and where the raw data will be published and any special considerations for accessing or distributing that data.



Potential pitfalls



As part of the data-sharing policy, when a research project is complete or when its grant expires — whichever comes first — NIH program officers will review the DMS plan to ensure that researchers have adhered to it. At that time, the policy stipulates that researchers must share any ‘scientific data’ needed to “validate and replicate research findings, regardless of whether the data are used to support scholarly publications” — although it makes an exception in cases where data sharing would pose a significant legal, ethical or technical burden. The NIH recommends that this data be shared only in a reputable repository; ultimately, researchers will decide where to upload the information.



Despite its potential pitfalls, Ross thinks that the policy will have a ripple effect that will persuade smaller funding agencies and industry to adopt similar changes. “This policy establishes what people expect from clinical research,” he says. “It’s essentially saying the culture of research needs to change.”



Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00402-1



This is also another example of federally funded research having important data stewardship requirements.  This means the data will need to be both available and protected per the terms of the contracts/grants.



Enjoy a jocund day,

Robert Smith, CISSP

Systemwide IT Policy Director/Security Director

Information Technology Services

University of California Office of the President

(510) 587-6244 (o)

(510) 541-8103 (m)

robert.smith at ucop.edu<mailto:robert.smith at ucop.edu>

PTO Alert – March 21, 2021 to April 15, 2022


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/ritl/attachments/20220224/09d569d0/attachment.html>