The National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA) is a single infrastructure that was initially created through the integration of a set of research data repositories including the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR), the Research Domain Criteria Database (RDoCdb), the National Database for Clinical Trials related to Mental Illness (NDCT), and the NIH Pediatric MRI Repository (PedsMRI). The NDA infrastructure was established to support autism research, but has grown into an informatics platform that facilitates data sharing across all of mental health and other research communities, making data available from each of these repositories combined into a single resource with a single process for gaining access to all shared data.

The NIH and NIMH seek to encourage the use of these resources to achieve accelerated scientific progress. In order to take full advantage of such resources and maximize their research value, it is important that data be made available, on appropriate terms and conditions, to the largest possible number of qualified investigators in a timely manner.

NDA Data Repositories

NDA is comprised of several data repositories that are combined and harmonized in one database for broad querying. Repositories currently supported include the NIMH Data Archive (NDA), the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD), the Connectome Coordination Facility (CCF), the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), and the NIAAA Data Archive (NIAAA_DA).

NIMH Data Archive (NDA)

The NIMH Data Archive (NDA) houses, harmonizes, and shares all human-subjects data collected as part of NIMH-funded projects with the goal of accelerating progress in the research of mental health. NDA is one database infrastructure that supports efforts to make data collected by different laboratories as consistent as possible and allow other researchers to access those data for secondary use. NDA stores and shares clinical/phenotypic, imaging, genomic, and other data from hundreds of thousands of research participants. NDA was formed by the combination of several databases that shared this infrastructure including the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR), the National Database for Clinical Trials related to Mental Illness (NDCT), the Research Domain Criteria Database (RDoC db), and the NIH Pediatric MRI Data Repository.

Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD) Data Repository

The ABCD Study is a long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. Multiple NIH Institutes and Centers and additional federal partners are supporting this ambitious project. The ABCD Consortium consists of a Coordinating Center, a Data Analysis and Informatics Center, and 21 research sites across the country where investigators will perform regular, comprehensive biological and behavioral assessments on more than 10,000 children beginning at ages 9 or 10 and continuing throughout adolescence into early adulthood. A more complete description of the study is available at https://ABCDStudy.org.

Connectome Coordination Facility (CCF)

The Connectome Coordination Facility (CCF) processes and distributes research data for a series of neuroimaging studies that focus on connections within the human brain. These are known as Human Connectome Projects (HCP). The CCF currently supports 19 NIH-funded human connectome studies. Visit http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/ for a full description of the project.

The Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI)

The Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) is a multi-center, longitudinal, prospective observational study of knee osteoarthritis (OA). The overall aim of the OAI is to develop a public domain research resource to facilitate the scientific evaluation of biomarkers for osteoarthritis as potential surrogate endpoints for disease onset and progression. The OAI will establish and maintain a natural history database for osteoarthritis that will include clinical evaluation data, radiological (x-ray and magnetic OMB Control Number: 0925-0667 Expiration Date: 11/30/2020 December 14, 2017 resonance) images, and a biospecimen repository from 4796 men and women ages 45-79 enrolled between February 2004 and May 2006. Four 3.0 Tesla MRI scanners, one at each clinical center, are dedicated to imaging the knees of OAI participants annually over four years. The seven-year project will recruit participants who have, and those who are at high risk for developing, symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. Access to biospecimens will be by application to the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Data Archive (NIAAA_DA)

The NIAAA Data Archive (NIAAA_DA) is a data repository that houses human-subjects data generated by NIAAA-funded grants, with the goal of accelerating research into alcohol abuse and alcoholism. NIAAA is one of the 27 institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and supports and conducts research on the impact of alcohol use on human health and well-being. NIAAA is the largest funder of alcohol research in the world. The NIAAA_DA is the main outcome of an NIAAA initiative to support data sharing and maximize its research value.

National Institute on Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) Triplet Repeat Disease

The NINDS Triplet Repeat Disease is a data repository that houses human-subjects data on triplet repeat diseases generated by NINDS-funded grants.

NDA Permission Groups

Access to shared record-level data in NDA is provisioned at the level of a permission group. NDA Permission Groups consist of one or multiple NDA Collections that contain data with the same subject consents. 

An NDA Collection is a virtual container for data and other information related to a project/grant. It provides important information about the project, funding amounts, reported enrollment, data sharing schedule, and results.  Each NDA Collection contains data with the same subject consents and is associated with one NDA permission group.

NDA hosts and provisions access to datasets in three types of permission groups, described below.

Broad Use Permission Groups

Broad Use Permission Groups consist of one or multiple NDA Collections that contain data that all have been consented for broad research use.

NIMH Data Archive (NDA)

The NDA Permission Group comprises all NDA Collections in the NDA Data Repository that are broadly consented for research use.  Data Access Requests for NDA – Broad Use are reviewed by the NDA Data Access Committee.

Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD)/Connectome Coordination Facility (CCF)

The ABCD/CCF Permission Group comprises all NDA Collections in the ABCD and CCF data repositories that are broadly consented for research use.  Data Access Requests for ABCD/CCF are reviewed by the ABCD Data Access Committee. 

NIAAAA Data Archive (NIAAA_DA)

The NIAAA_DA Permission Group comprises all NDA Collections in the NIAAA_DA Data Repository that are broadly consented for research use.  Data Access Requests for NIAAA_DA – Broad Use are reviewed by the NIAAA_DA Data Access Committee

NINDS Triplet Repeat Disease

The NINDS Triplet Repeat Disease Permission Group comprises all NDA Collections in the NINDS Triplet Repeat Disease Data Repository that are broadly consented for research use.  Data Access Requests for NINDS Triplet Repeat Disease - Broad Use are reviewed by the NINDS Data Access Committee.

Open Access permission groups

Open Access Permission Groups consist of one or multiple NDA Collections that contain data that have been consented for broad research use and for which the submitting investigator and their research institution have agreed in their NDA Data Submission Agreement that access can be made to individuals without the need for Institutional Sponsorship.

Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI)

All data in the Osteoarthritis Initiative Data Repository are open access.  Data Access Requests for the OAI Permission Group do not require Institutional sponsorship. NDA user requests (Individual Sponsorship) will be approved immediately upon submission of the request. 

Controlled Access permission groups

Controlled Access Permission Groups consist of one or multiple NDA Collections that contain data with the same subject consent-based data use limitations.  A description of Controlled Access Permission Groups is maintained on the NDA Permissions Dashboard.

 

 

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