Research Data and Geographic Information Librarian
Budgeting for Data Management and Sharing
The cost of data management may come as a surprise, but considering the time, effort, and infrastructure needed to ensure consistent access to your data, costs may quickly add up.
Most funders allow you to include fees associated with curating, documenting, formatting, preservation, and archival costs in your budget, as long as they are listed. Note that standard research activities (collecting or access data) and institutional overhead are not covered.
Tips for Budgeting
When deciding on how much data storage you will need, it is better to overestimate than underestimate.
A general rule of thumb for deciding how much storage you need, is to double your anticipated total data size. For example, if you plan on generating 50GB of data, budget for 100GB of data storage.
Personal Health Information (PHI) has additional requirements and must be stored separately from non-PHI data.
Include storage for back-up copies of your data.
DataONE lists the following as costs to consider at each stage of your research:
- Short-term
- Long-term
- Internal/External
- Equipment/Services
- Overhead
- Time
- Human Resources
Additional Budgeting Resources
- OIT Research Data StorageThe University of Alabama provides over 500GB of storage to all users by default. For any additional storage needs, please contact D. Jay Cervino (dcervino@ua.edu) and request a consultation.
- OIT Hosting ServicesUA OIT offers secure data storage and will work with you to determine your storage needs. They offer support for data storing, server/application hosting, and backup & recovery.
- NIH Budgeting for Data Management & SharingEven if you are not applying for an NIH grant, their website offers some good resources outlining what should be considered when budgeting for grant applications.
- DataONE Bugeting for Data Management Best PracticesGreat outline and structure for thinking about what costs you will need to include in your DMP and budget.
- "The Value of Data Management" from the USGSSuggests best practices for storing data and outlines the additional costs of not properly managing your data.