Data Sharing for Demographic Research Infrastructure Program

This initiative will continue supporting a repository for datasets produced through support from the Population Dynamics Branch (PDB) and other components of NICHD’s Division of Extramural Research. DSDR is widely used by NICHD grantees; complies with NIH data sharing requirements; is listed in the NLM Open Domain-Specific Data Sharing Repositories; and holds more than 3,000 datasets containing over 1.5 million variables. It provides archiving, curation, and dissemination services that are not available through other repositories used by NICHD-funded researchers, such as the NICHD Data and Specimen Hub (DASH), and offers data archiving and dissemination services beyond the those required by NIH data sharing policy. This repository houses unique data from qualitative studies, unstructured data sources, and studies of sensitive topics. The grantee will be expected to provide resources to researchers on best practices for archiving data, including information about sharing qualitative and other sensitive data. Annually, DSDR will be required to process 20-40 new and updated datasets; disseminate 135 datasets and their documentation; review and oversee 30 data use agreements; facilitate 700,000 or more downloads of data, documentation, and other resources; maintain a guide to NICHD PDB archived data including data archived elsewhere; and provide technical assistance to 1,500-2,000 users.