The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Data Archive (NIAAADA) is a data repository that houses and shares human subjects data generated by NIAAA-funded research. 

 

Overview

Widespread data sharing by research communities adds significant value to research and accelerates the pace of discovery. NIAAA has begun a new data-sharing initiative to create a data repository of NIAAA-funded studies that include human subjects. This repository is called the NIAAA Data Archive (NIAAADA). NIAAA-funded investigators conducting applicable human subjects research are expected to submit de-identified, individual-level data to this data archive. Non-NIAAA funded investigators with alcohol-related data are welcome to deposit their data to the NIAAADA. The data in the NIAAADA are catalogued and made available to the general research community after an embargo period following the end date of the research award.

 

The NIAAADA Website

The new NIAAADA website – https://nda.nih.gov/niaaa - is the portal for all information about NIAAA-related data submissions and data access.  This website serves as a resource for investigators on NIAAA-funded projects preparing to share their data through NIAAADA. It also provides useful information for those who are thinking of applying for a grant that will have associated data sharing expectations. Grant applicants are strongly encouraged to review this website prior to submitting a human-subjects grant application to NIAAA. Anyone preparing to share data can visit this site and learn about the initial steps and pre-requisites prior to and immediately after award, understand the process to harmonize data to a common definition and deposit it in the NIAAADA, and learn how to get help if a problem arises. Data submitted to NIAAADA will eventually be accessible by the general research community via NIAAADA

 

Expectations for NIAAA Grant Applicants

Per NOT-AA-19-020, NIAAA expects that new grant applications involving applicable human subjects studies include an appropriate plan for submitting grant-related human subjects data to NIAAADA. These plans should be included in a NIAAA Data Archive Data Sharing Plan (NIAAADA DSP) located in the Resource Sharing Plan section of grant applications. Applicants are strongly encouraged to use the NIAAADA DSP template for this purpose.

 

NIAAADA and the NIMH Data Archive

The NIAAADA is housed within the larger National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA), a data repository for human subject research. NDA is comprised of a harmonization and sharing infrastructure that supports not only the human subjects research funded by NIMH (located in the NDA itself), but also a number of repositories, including NIAAADA, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Data Repository, the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), and the Connectome Coordination Facility (CCF).
 
NDA currently houses data on over 400,000 research subjects.  The benefits of merging data from hundreds of NIH-funded research projects include:

 

  • Secondary Data Analysis: aggregate deidentified, subject-level data from multiple studies or re-analyze data from publications or findings.
  • Experimental Design: review and use existing data collection plans for new studies; analyze shared data to generate preliminary data for new grants.
  • Rigor and Reproducibility
    • Validate newly collected data prior to submission and discover and resolve harmonization issues early in the research lifecycle.
    • Precisely define all data, cohorts, and analyses reported in a publication so other researchers can accurately reproduce results and design new studies for broader impacts.
  • Computational Infrastructure: utilize NDA’s secure web services and secure cloud infrastructure for data validation, file management, search, query, analysis, and pipeline integration.

 

For technical assistance with data submission please contact: 

NDAhelp@mail.nih.gov

301-443-3265

 

For other inquiries please contact:
Daniel E. Falk, Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator, NIAAA
falkde@mail.nih.gov