FAQs

You are expected to share the scientific data needed to validate and replicate your research findings, along with sufficient metadata for reuse. Share your data at the time of publication or by the end of your award performance period, whichever comes first, unless you are limited by ethical, legal, or privacy considerations.

For additional detail on sharing expectations or what qualifies as scientific data, refer to the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy FAQ. Contact your NIH PO or the HEAL Data Stewards with any questions.

HEAL data must be shared by the time of publication or the end of the performance period, whichever comes first, and should be available in a HEAL-compliant data repository. At the time of publishing, all data underlying that publication should be available in a HEAL-compliant data repository. For additional detail on sharing expectations or what qualifies as scientific data, refer to the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy FAQs.

Data generated in the first phase must generally be shared by the end of the first phase. Specific requirements are available in your Notice of Award or through your NIH Program Officer.

By default, each study phase is assigned its own record on the HEAL Data Platform, and study teams must provide study-level metadata (i.e., information about the kind of study you are conducting) and link(s) to shared data for each phase. If one of the phases does not have a data sharing requirement, if data from the two phases will be shared collectively vs as two or more distinct datasets, or if one of the phases is not producing shareable data, please contact the Stewards to discuss how your study is represented on the HEAL Data Platform.

Contact your Program Officer or the HEAL Stewards if you are unsure of your award’s data sharing expectations.

Registering your study on the Platform is essentially “claiming” your study so you and other members of your team can provide study-level metadata and complete other items on the HEAL Investigator Checklist. Registration occurs in three steps:

1. Locate your study on the HEAL Data Platform, and click the “Request access to register” at the top of the study page.
2. Create an account at cedar.metadatacenter.org. We use this platform to collect study information (i.e., study-level metadata) in a standardized way.
3. Connect your study on the HEAL Data Platform to your CEDAR platform account, so we can send your study-level metadata form.

Any team member can register your study (it does not need to be the PI). Once the study is registered, the study-level metadata form can be shared with other team members. Full instructions for study registration and study-level metadata submission are available here. Study registration is required on the HEAL checklist and enables more robust search functions, making your study more findable.

Use the HEAL Data Checklist Tracker Tool to check your study’s progress meeting HEAL requirements. Use the tool to search by PI name, NIH project number, CTN Protocol number, NIH application ID (Appl ID), or HEAL Data Platform ID (HDP ID). Completed checklist items will have a green check mark icon next to them. Contact the Stewards with any questions about step completion.