60day comment log

60-day FRN Public Comment Log
Title:
(Federal Register Notice Vol 89 No.100, Pgs.45000-45001)
Date of Comment:

July 19, 2024

Date Received:

July 30, 2024

Category: (Simple or Multiple
Comments)
Comment Type: (Fax, Letter, Email, Post
Card, Other)
Author’s First Name:
Author’s Last Name:
Author’s Affiliation: (if available)

Simple
Email
Krystal
Toups
Council on Governmental Relations (COGR)

Sponsoring Organization: (if available)
Comment received:
(if lengthy please provide screenshot
below)

C.5.c Data Management and Sharing
1. We recommend the following actions to clarify. Delete
“Applicable/Not Applicable” and add two radio buttons.
The first radio button indicates the applicability of the
2023 NIH Final DMS Policy for the award. We suggest
the text: “Completion of this section is not required
because either this award is not subject to the 2023 NIH
Final Policy on Data Management and Sharing or a Data
Management and Sharing Plan was not required for this
mechanism.” The second radio button to add is to
indicate if there is anything to report. We suggest adding
the text “Nothing to Report,” which aligns with other
response options in the RPPR to indicate there is nothing
significant to report during the reporting period.
2. We recommend deleting this question as it is duplicative.
However, if the intent of this question is an overall status
of DMS activities, we suggest the question be re-worded
as follows: “Describe any challenges or delays in
implementing the approved DMS Plan encountered
during the reporting period and actions or plans to
resolve them.”
DMSP Information Dialogue Box: Data Management and
Sharing Plan Information.
3. Given that some projects may have multiple data types,
we recommend using a drop-down box with categorical

Date responded to comment:

Program response provided:
(if lengthy please provide screenshot
below)

selections consistent with those utilized in DMS Plan
templates instead of a text box to facilitate ease of
completion. This approach will also aid NIH’s analysis
of the data collected. Additionally, because an
appropriate repository may not exist for all data types,
we recommend revising the “Repository” header to read
“Repository/Database”. Also, given that a Persistent
Unique Identifier is not specifically required under the
policy and may not be feasible in all cases, we
recommend revising the “Unique Identifiers/Digital
Object Identifier (DOI)” header to read “Persistent
Unique Identifier or other standard indexing tool used.”
Finally, if this information needs to be populated
annually, we suggest it automatically roll over to the next
progress report to streamline the process.
4. While we focused our response on section C.5.c, Data
Management and Sharing, we noted references to data
sharing in the Resource Sharing section (C.5.b). We
recommend removing this reference and providing clear
instructions that information related to the 2023 NIH
Final DMS Policy should be addressed in section C.5.c.
August 7, 2024
1. Thank you for the comment. The proposed instructions
for this question specify that recipients will not be
required to manually respond. The eRA RPPR module
will automatically populate the value based on how the
application is coded in the system. If the grant is coded
as ‘Not Applicable’ in the system, recipients will not be
required to respond to the sub questions relevant for
awards subject to the DMS Policy.
2. Thank you for the comment. NIH does not consider this
question to be duplicative. The questions are designed to
distinctly first capture 1) whether data has been
generated and 2) whether the data has been shared during
the reporting period. Subsequently if data has been
generated and not shared, NIH will then want to capture
the status of data sharing activities in consideration of the
approved DMS plan. NIH thanks the commenter for the
recommendation and will consider the recommended
wording for future changes, if appropriate.
3. NIH thanks the commenter for the feedback and will
consider the recommendations.
4. RPPR Section C.5.b remains unchanged as NIH has
recipients that are subject to the 2003 NIH Data Sharing
Policy. NIH thanks the commenter for the

recommendation and will consider the recommended
wording for future changes, if appropriate.