Funding agency guidelines

The 2013 Public Access to Federally Funded Research memo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy directed most grant-funding agencies to develop policy requirements public access to resulting articles and data. For more detailed information, including timelines for sharing, please click on the agency. 

The Libraries can help you write and implement your data management plan to best meet funder requirements. You can also use our Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM) to meet federal funder requirements for data sharing.

Federal funders' responses to the OSTP memo (updated as they become available):

* Data must be available for at least 10 years

** Data management plan is required for digital projects

This page looks at the requirements from federal funders for managing and sharing research data; for articles, see requirements for public access to publications.

• Department of Defense
  • DOD's Response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
  • DOD Principles and Operational Parameters of the DoD Scientific and Technical Information Program
    "It is DoD policy under DoD Directive 3200.12 to establish and maintain a coordinated and comprehensive program to document the results and outcome of DoD-sponsored and/or performed research and engineering (R&E) and studies efforts and provide access to those efforts in an effective manner consistent with the DoD mission."
• Department of the Transportation
  • DOT's Response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
  • "In the DMP, researchers will propose their strategy(ies) to deposit Digital Data Sets resulting from DOT-funded Scientific Research in a repository that enables and allows for Public Access and sharing.... All Digital Data Sets subject to this plan will be inventoried in the DOT Public Data Listing, whether performed by intramural or extramural researchers."
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • CDC's Response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
  • CDC Policy on Sharing Data
  • "The purpose of CDC’s data release/sharing policy is to ensure that (1) CDC routinely provides data to its partners for appropriate public health purposes and (2) all data are released and/or shared as soon as feasible without compromising privacy concerns, federal and state confidentiality concerns, proprietary interests, national security interests, or law enforcement activities."
• Department of Education
  • DOE's Response to the OSTP Public Access Memo
  • Institute of Education Sciences (IES) data sharing policy
    "The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) expressed its commitment to advancing education research through the sharing of scientific data collected through its grant-funded research programs. The purpose of this data sharing implementation guide is to describe how this policy will be implemented and to provide guidance to grant applicants".
• National Institutes of Health
  • NIH's Response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
  • NIH Data Sharing Policy, as of 2003, still current
  • For grants over $500,000, a data sharing plan must be included in the grant application and incorporated as a term and condition of the award. Final Research Data "should be made as widely and freely available as possible while safeguarding the privacy of participants, and protecting confidential and proprietary data".
• National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Digital Humanities
  • Office of Digital Humanities of NEH Data Management 2015
    "You'll note that we have aligned our data management requirements with those of the National Science Foundation to enable you to take advantage of data management resources that your institution may have already developed for applying to the NSF.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • NIST Response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
  • NIST Guidelines, Information Quality Standards, and Administration Mechanism
  • Per NIST, grantees are not subject to the data sharing guidelines listed in the "NIST Guidelines..." document unless NIST directly distributes the data.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • NOAA Response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
  • NOAA’s plan for data builds on the agency’s existing strong foundation for research data sharing. Currently, all intramural researchers are required to submit a Data Management Plan (DMP) outlining plans for providing access to and long-term preservation of any research data, while extramural researchers are required to submit a more light-weight Data Sharing Plan, covering plans for access only. These requirements will be adjusted to require all NOAA programs to consider requiring full DMP’s when researchers apply for NOAA funding.
• United States Department of Agriculture
  • USDA's Response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
  • USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
    The NIFA requires a DMP will all research. They state: "Increased access to scientific research results (e.g., scholarly publications, digital data sets) from NIFA funded projects is critical to achieving NIFA’s vision to catalyze transformative discoveries, education, and engagement to address agricultural challenges. Therefore, an appropriate data management plan (DMP) should be a core component of research planning for proposals submitted to NIFA."
• ​US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
  • VA Policy and Implementation Plan (July 2015) in response to the OSTP's Public Access Memo
• Environmental Protection Agency
  • EPA Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated
  • Non-specific to sharing, rather, ensures "a basic standard of quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity".

To locate requirements for agencies not listed here, we recommend consulting the comprehensive list available at https://cendi.gov/projects/Public_Access_Plans_US_Fed_Agencies.html.