Starting May 25, 2026, the National Institute of Health (NIH) is requiring a shorter standardized format for Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plans, the documentation outlining how scientific data generated from NIH-funded research is managed, preserved, and shared. The new format is intended to reduce administrative burden for applicants and create more consistent plans that are easier for NIH to review and monitor. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is currently reviewing the new format, final approval is pending as of March 12, 2026.
What is changing
- The NIH is replacing the current two-page narrative DMS Plan with a standardized format that includes mostly “yes” or “no” responses, a table describing data types and repositories, and a short text field.
- The draft NIH DMS Plan Format page will be required for applications with due dates on or after May 25, 2026.
What remains the same
- The expectations underlying the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy introduced in 2023 remain unchanged.
- Researchers must continue to maximize the appropriate sharing of research data.
- Data should be shared as soon as possible and no later than the time of publication or the end of the award period, whichever comes first.
- Data should be managed according to Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reuseable (FAIR) data principles and deposited in established repositories when available.
- Researchers may continue to include allowable data management and sharing costs in grant budgets.
Learn more and get support
- Reference the library’s NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy Page for updated guidance.
- Explore the library’s Reproducible Data Management guide to learn about research data repositories.
- Schedule a free data management consultation with the library’s Data Science and Open Scholarship team.
- Contact our data science experts for help selecting a research data repository or planning for data sharing.
Thanks to Laurie Herraiz, associate program director, University of California, San Francisco, Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), for her contributions to this announcement.