Data Sharing for Demographic Research Infrastructure Program

The contract supports the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of a specialized data repository managed by the Population Dynamics Branch and other parts of the NICHD’s Division of Extramural Research. This repository, known as DSDR, is an essential resource for NICHD grantees, offering archiving, curation, and data dissemination services that go beyond those required by NIH data sharing policies. It uniquely accommodates a broad range of data types, including qualitative studies, unstructured data, and sensitive topics, which are not typically handled by other NIH repositories. The repository contains over 3,000 datasets and more than 1.5 million variables, complying with NIH data sharing requirements and being recognized by the NLM Open Domain-Specific Data Sharing Repositories. Key responsibilities under this initiative include processing 20-40 new or updated datasets annually, disseminating 135 datasets and their documentation, and managing approximately 30 data use agreements each year. The contract also requires facilitating over 700,000 data downloads annually and providing technical assistance to between 1,500 and 2,000 users. Additionally, maintainers will keep an updated guide to NICHD PDB archived data, including information about data housed outside the repository, and offer guidance to researchers on best practices for archiving and sharing qualitative and sensitive data. The initiative is managed by the National Institutes of Health under the Department of Health and Human Services, with a point of contact available for communication.