The Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) has updated their information regarding Data Management Plan requirements for all BIO directorate proposals. The update includes clarifications for requirements, DMP content and reports for post-award management. See BIO’s Guidance on Data Management Plans (PDF) for more information.

The requirement guidelines point out that “any specific instructions and exceptions to the two page limit will be found in the specific Program Solicitations.” The requirements further clarify the responsibilities in collaborative proposals “lead PI is responsible for the DMP for the entire project…and responsible for reporting in the Annual and Final Reports on the data management, preservation and access for the whole project.”

The content section adds “software or computer code that is required for replication” to BIO’s definition of “data”. This section also emphasizes the “principle of timely access” to data and that “applicants should address how this will be met in their DMP statement.” To help proposal reviewers (during the merit review process), NSF-BIO has specified how the DMP should be organized. This organization is slightly different than the version of the NSF-BIO template in the DMPTool.

Because of the update to the NSF-BIO Data Management Plan, the DMPTool template for NSF-BIO has been revised. All NSF-BIO DMPs currently under development for proposals, should move their content to the new version of the NSF-BIO plan (V2).

If you have a NSF-BIO DMP in development, export, from your “MyPlans” page of the DMPTool, the content as a “Plain Text” file. Make sure “Plain Text” is selected and click the “Export” button located under your specific plan. Now create a new DMP using the new NSF-BIO plan.  Select the new version, “NSF-BIO: Biological Sciences (v2)”, from the “Create a new plan” pull-down menu. Now copy and paste the content from the exported DMP (v1) to the new plan (v2) using the following directions:

Copy all content from v1 question 1 to v2 question 1.
Copy all content from v1 question 3 to v2 question 1.
Copy all content from v1 question 2 to v2 question 2.
Copy the “dissemination” content from v1 question 4 to v2 question 3.
Copy the “Policies for Data Sharing & Public Access” content from v1 question 4 to v2 question 4.
Copy all content from v1 question 5 to v2 question 5.

The Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) has updated their information regarding Data Management Plan requirements for all BIO directorate proposals.

The NSF-BIO template will be updated in the DMPTool late Thursday, May 2, 2013. All proposals created with the old template will still be available, but all new NSf-BIO DMPs will use the new template starting on Thursday. If you have already started a NSF-BIO DMP, check back here on Thursday, after the change for instructions on how to move over your content to the new template.

The US Department of Energy has revised its stance on research digital data management. As of October 1 in 2013, all proposals submitted to the DoE Office of Science for research funding will require a Data Management Plan. Based on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research, the new standards will focus on data preservation and re-use.

The preliminary data management plan requirements are listed in a presentation available online. They include a mandatory written plan detailing data preservation access. These data resulting from the proposed research funded by the DoE will need to be digitally accessible at time of publication as an information supplement.

The US Department of Energy Office of Science plans to have a full policy statement published by mid-summer.