NewsData Sharing Resources at NICHD
The Data and Specimen Hub (DASH) is a centralized resource for researchers to store, access, and share de-identified data from studies funded by NICHD. It allows investigators to meet NIH’s data sharing requirements for their studies and find study data from other investigators for secondary analysis. The site is also a portal for requesting biospecimens from selected studies in DASH.
DASH has begun collecting a DASH Codebook from data submitters as part of their study submission. The DASH Codebook is a templated data dictionary that captures information about datasets, variables, and coded values for all data submitted for a given study. It will support DASH quality assurance and data management workflows as well as facilitating search and discovery of study data by enabling visualization of annotated variables and associated statistics in DASH. The DASH team has already completed codebooks for many of the original studies in DASH, and those codebooks have proved to be useful for enhancing the searchability of DASH study data.
The DASH Codebook Template and a User Guide for filling out the Codebook are available for download from the Submission Resources page in DASH. The DASH team can provide user support as needed, and in June the team will host a training session to assist investigators with completing the DASH Codebook Template.
Investigators are encouraged to develop their study’s DASH Codebook early in the data collection process and to make use of the recommended data standards and ontologies provided in the template. Early planning will facilitate the DASH data submission process and contribute to variable-level harmonization across DASH studies.
NIH Policy on Reporting Workplace Harassment at Grantee Institutions
Acting NIH Director Lawrence A. Tabak, Ph.D., D.D.S., issued a statement and the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) issued a Guide Notice to alert the NIH-funded community that NIH is implementing a general provision in the 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-103). The law mandates that the NIH director require that NIH-funded institutions report to NIH “when individuals identified as principal investigator or as key personnel in an NIH notice of award are removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions.” This provision not only enables mandatory reporting of removals and disciplinary actions to NIH but also ensures that NIH is made aware when concerns of harassment are the reason for the actions. Wherever NIH research activities take place, our priority will always be to do what we can to eliminate harassment.
Effective July 8, 2022, NIH is requiring that the Authorized Organization Representative at NIH-funded institutions submit a notification form to NIH within 30 days of a removal or disciplinary action. Details of this new NIH requirement on supporting a safe and respectful workplace at institutions that receive NIH funding are posted on this NIH Grants and Funding webpage and the NIH Anti-Sexual Harassment website.
Request for Public Input on Potential Amendments to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
The U.S. Department of Education has announced plans to gather public input on possible amendments to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in order to strengthen and protect the rights of students with disabilities.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced that it intends to propose amendments to the department’s regulations at 34 C.F.R. pt. 104, implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As part of this process, OCR is seeking written suggestions from the public about how best to improve the current regulations. It would be appreciated if longer and more detailed comments were submitted by the end of June 2022, but all comments submitted before the issuance of any notice of proposed rule-making will be reviewed. Instructions and cautions are below.
Comments can be sent to Section504@ed.gov.
More details can be found at the webpage for Rulemaking and Regulations by the Office for Civil Rights.
Notices and Funding Opportunities
