by Erin Schlicher, SPA and Amber Nichols, OSP
Most of MSU's Federal awards require publicly sharing research publications, and agencies are in various stages of implementing requirements for data sharing. For NIH projects, a Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan must be submitted with each proposal, and the approved plan must be implemented if the proposal is funded. Project budgets should include expected DMS costs when applicable.
Why is it important to include DMS costs in my budget?
There are real costs associated with data management and sharing, and not including them in your budget request could result in the project going over budget.
A recent NSF-funded study conducted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) (grant #2135874) found that DMS activities are associated with substantial costs to both researchers and institutions. Among the institutions included in the study, the average expenditure for DMS activities during the entire grant period was $29,800, which equated to nearly 6% of the total award amount. Average DMS costs were higher for NIH-funded researchers, who reported an average total DMS expense of $36,000 across the lifetime of the project. While total DMS costs tended to be higher for larger awards, they generally represented a larger percentage of the award amount for smaller projects.
In general, staffing and IT costs represent the largest DMS expense categories. Even if a project won't need a full-time data manager or specialized software, there could still be significant DMS costs. Often, researchers underestimate the amount of time it will take to implement a DMS Plan. Working with the NIH repositories can be challenging, and formatting the data to the repository's standards can take a considerable amount of time and effort. When developing a DMS Plan, researchers should consider who will be doing this work so it can be appropriately budgeted for. The ARL study predictably found that when researchers did more of the DMS activities on their own, DMS expenses tended to be higher. It is usually more cost-efficient to hire a data manager or research assistant to perform DMS activities.
What constitutes a DMS cost and where do we put them in the budget?
All data that is generated and required to be shared or planned to be shared, is subject to a DMS plan and associated DMS costs. DMS costs can be described as funds set aside to be used towards preserving and sharing scientific data, per NIH's DMS policy.
Reasonable DMS costs should be requested in the correct budget category. Examples of appropriate categories include personnel, supplies, equipment, and other expenses. They should always be direct costs to the specific project, program, or activity.
Although NIH no longer requires a line item in the Research & Related (R&R) budget for DMS costs, researchers are still required to specify estimated costs in the budget justification attachment in the correct category and within the budget narrative attachment for a modular budget.
What if we don't incur any DMS costs?
Even if there are no DMS costs to include on a project, that must be stated in the budget justification or budget narrative. However, we would strongly advise against budgeting $0 for DMS costs. As stated above, DMS activities require time and effort, and the amount of time required can be substantial.
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