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Understanding the Cost of Data Sharing at WashU

By WashU Libraries

Researchers receiving federal funding are aware of data sharing requirements that often accompany that funding. Although most can agree that sharing essential data generated from these projects is in the public interest, another consideration is the associated costs. The Realities of Academic Data Sharing (RADS) project was developed to address those concerns.

RADS Phase One

RADS was developed from a National Science Foundation (NSF) EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) grant in 2021, which sought to understand the quality and cost of data sharing across six R1 institutions, Completing the Lifecycle: Developing Evidence Based Models of Research Data Sharing (NSF #2135874).

The project was led by the Association of Research Libraries in cooperation with the Data Curation Network. Key insights derived from this research indicate that data management and sharing expenses are non-trivial for both researchers and institutions.

An overview of findings as of 2023:

  • An average of $2,500,000 combined annual institutional expense for data management and sharing (DMS) for researchers and campus service providers
  • Approximate range of $800,000 to over $6,000,000 in institutional expenses
  • An average yearly $750,000 for data management and sharing for all institutional units, including the library, IT, research office, and other institutional institutes and centers that have DMS capabilities
  • An average $29,800 directly incurred by researchers per funded research project for DMS
  • An average of 6 percent estimated in the overall grant award that was used by researchers for DMS
  • An average of $36,000 estimated by researchers per NIH funded project
  • An average of $19,000 estimated by researchers per NSF funded project

RADS Phase Two

While the research team was encouraged by these preliminary results, it was clear that more data were needed. In 2023, the Institute for Museum and Library Science (IMLS) funded phase two of the RADS Initiative (LG-254930-OLS-23) to conduct a more in-depth study across twelve institutions.

RADS has three foci in this phase:

  1. What service and cost models do institutions use to support research data management and sharing policies?
  2. What are the direct expenses for institutions, particularly academic libraries, in implementing federally mandated data-sharing policies?
  3. What costs do researchers incur to comply with funded research data-sharing policies?

The team is engaging both with researchers and administrators to find answers to these questions by retrospectively surveying PIs who had a project/award listed in the following funder award databases: DOD, DOE, NASA, NEH, NIH, NSF, or USDA. The grant closeout must have fallen between 2018 and 2024, and the data generated had a sharing for public access requirement.

Jennifer Moore, Head of Data Services, has been a PI on both RADS grants. WashU researchers who have been contacted will have until February 4, 2026, to respond to questions on personnel time, infrastructure expenses, and institutional support related to data sharing and compliance.

The RADS study has the potential to inform institutional planning and potentially influence future funding agency policies.