Research Data Management: Costs and Compliance

Costs for data management and sharing may be allowable in an initial grant budget. Costs should be estimated for working with and preserving data for future use and reuse. Cost estimation tools are included below.

• ARL Cost Estimates of Institutional & Researcher Expenses The average expenditure for researchers for DMS services and infrastructure throughout the grant period was $29,800 or 5.83% of their award amount. 
• Life-Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data: The Challenge of Forecasting Costs. (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine)
• NIMH Data Archive Data Submission Cost Estimation Tool (downloadable spreadsheet) (NIH)

Data ethics is a broad and complex issue. Below are resources for ethical considerations for safeguarding data.

• Check your campus IRB requirements for working with data.
• Consider your campus security requirements for the types of data created and used in your project.
• Check your campus for Information Security protocols, standards, and procedures.
• Consider existing legal data protections such as:
  • FERPA 
  • HIPAA
  • GDPR
  • NIST 800
• Suggestions for de-identifying data:
  • HIPAA and de-identifying
  • Species data protections
  • NIST