New Guidance to Ensure Federally Funded Research Data Equitably Benefits All of America | The White House

"To help ensure that access is shared equitably by all Americans, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has been working for nearly a decade to ensure that Federal agencies with research and development budgets of at least $100 million develop plans to deposit Federally funded data into online digital repositories.

To continue this effort, today OSTP is releasing the report Guidance on Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research. This guidance contains clearly defined desirable characteristics for two classes of online research data repositories: a general class appropriate for all types of Federally funded data—including free and easy access—and a specific class that has special considerations for the sharing of human data, including additional data security and privacy considerations. Federal agencies can use this guidance to provide more consistent information to their research communities about sharing Federally funded data with the public. 

Agencies can also use this guidance to ensure uniformity as they invest in their own digital repository infrastructure and to make their research data resources more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. It is expected that this guidance will not be static, but rather, will be updated as needed, as new modes of data storage and management emerge and agency needs evolve.  Ultimately, this guidance—along with the agency efforts detailed in OSTP’s recent report to Congress—will help make Federally funded research data more accessible to the American public. The release of this guidance is one of many steps that OSTP is taking to advance equitable delivery of research and strengthen Federal public access policies...."