May 13, 2010

NSF to Require Data Sharing Plan in Proposals

In October 2010, the National Science Foundation is planning to require that “all proposals include a data management plan in the form of a two-page supplementary document.” NSF announced this change at the May 5 National Science Board meeting.

The new requirement will change existing NSF policy that “requires grantees to share their data within a reasonable length of time, so long as the cost is modest.”

NSF states that the data management plans will be subject to peer review, and that NSF directorates and divisions will have flexibility to tailor implementation as appropriate.

NSF will inform the research community of the specifics of the anticipated changes and NSF’s expectations for the data management plans before October.