This is an ongoing competition open to select participants only.
2024 DataWorks! Prize
Rewarding new and innovative approaches to data sharing and reuse in research.
Submission period:
Phase 2 open until 06/24/25 04:59 PM UTCTotal cash prizes:
$500,000Subject of the Challenge
“The future of biological and biomedical research hinges on the ability of researchers to share and reuse data. Our goal is to incentivize creativity in developing best practices and strategies to share data and to further the NIH’s Data Management and Sharing Policy.” - Susan Gregurick, PhD, Director of NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS)
The DataWorks! Prize recognizes the impactful role of data reuse on human health. Through the 2024 Prize, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will recognize and reward research teams who propose and execute innovative secondary analysis and data reuse to generate novel scientific findings and create a valuable set of case studies and examples that can be used by the broader research community.
The 2024 DataWorks! Prize is a collaboration with the seven generalist repositories participating in the NIH-funded Generalist Repositories Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) and will focus on best practices in data reuse and secondary analysis that advance human health. Participants will participate in a two-phase challenge. In the first phase, research teams will submit a proposal for a secondary analysis research project that can be completed within a 6 month period and incorporates data from one or more generalist repositories participating in the GREI (more information on GREI); data from other repositories can be combined. In the second phase, selected teams will complete their reuse/secondary analysis research projects and share their findings publicly.
Successful submissions must:
● Address a pivotal health research question via data reuse and secondary data analysis
● Include data from at least one Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) organizations: Dataverse, Dryad, Figshare, Mendeley Data, Open Science Framework (OSF), Vivli, Zenodo
● Share results with the broader community
The 2024 DataWorks! Prize strives to demonstrate the value of existing data sets and data reuse practices in biomedical research. At the conclusion of the Prize, awarded projects will be featured through a number of activities and communication venues. The 2024 DataWorks! Prize will include up to 10 team awards. Submissions will undergo an expert review, with final awards selected by a panel of NIH officials. Winning teams will be recognized with a cash prize, and will be invited to participate in future DataWorks! Program opportunities.
Partners
The DataWorks! Prize is a partnership between FASEB and NIH with cash prize awards issued by the NIH.
Dates
Submissions:
Challenge Announcement: August 5, 2024
Phase One Submission Open: August 14, 2024
Phase One Submission Close: October 23, 2024
Phase One Award Announcement: December 2024
Phase Two Submission Open: January 15, 2025
Phase Two Submission Close: June 14, 2025
Phase Two Winners Announcement: August, 2025
Statutory Authority to Conduct the Challenge
The NIH, Office of the Director, Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) is conducting this Challenge under the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010, as amended [15 U.S.C. § 3719]. The complexity and volume of basic, translational, and clinical research data generated by NIH-supported investigators continues to rapidly increase. To fully utilize these data, NIH must develop a strategy to coordinate the collection, storage, analysis, use, and sharing of these data to ensure they are discoverable, interoperable, and reusable according to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) practices. One of the primary missions of ODSS is to catalyze and provide leadership, strategic guidance, and coordination for trans-NIH FAIR data activities. The DataWorks! Prize will advance this mission by establishing a partnership with the research community to broadly encourage and reward the adoption of FAIR data principles and other best practices that will ultimately enable better sharing, discovery, and secondary use of NIH-funded data.
Total cash prizes
Prize description
The NIH Office of Data Science Strategy will award up to $500,000 total in cash prizes to the Challenge winners. NIH will award the prize purse in the following amounts:
- Phase 1 = $25,000 per winner, up to 10 winners
- Phase 2 =
- Grand Prize: $100,000 for one winner
- Distinguished Achievement Awards: $75,000 per winner, up to 2 winners
Award Approving Official
The Award Approving Official for NIH prizes will be the Director of the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy.
Payment of the Prize
Prizes awarded under this Challenge will be paid by electronic funds transfer and may be subject to Federal income taxes. HHS/NIH will comply with the Internal Revenue Service withholding and reporting requirements, where applicable.
Participants competing as a Team (i.e., a group of individuals competing together but not on behalf of an established organization, institution, or corporation) must identify a Team Captain who will register and submit on behalf of the Team members. In the event of winning a cash prize, the Team Captain will be paid the prize directly and in full. As stated in the Rules: to be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Team Captain must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.
Participants competing as an Entity (i.e., a group of individuals competing together on behalf of a legally established organization, institution, or corporation) must identify a Point of Contact who will register and submit on behalf of the Entity. In the event of winning a cash prize, the prize will be paid directly and in full to the Entity, not to the Point of Contact. As stated in the Rules: to be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Entity must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States.
Entities participating in this Challenge are encouraged, but not required, to request and obtain a free Unique Entity ID (UEI), if they have not already done so, via SAM.gov as this will expedite prize payment. Additional information can be found at https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration .
NIH reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (a) cancel, suspend, or modify the Challenge, or any part of it, for any reason, and/or (b) not award any prizes if no submissions are deemed worthy.
Eligibility requirements
To be eligible to participate in and win a monetary prize under this Challenge, Participants (whether participating as a Team or Entity):
- Shall have registered to participate in the Challenge under the rules promulgated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) as published in this announcement;
- Shall have complied with all the requirements set forth in this announcement;
- Shall be a research team working in the biological, biomedical, or health sciences.
- In the case of an Entity, shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States. In the case of a Team, the Team Captain shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. However, non-U.S. citizens and non-permanent residents can participate as a member of a Team or Entity that otherwise satisfies the eligibility criteria. Non-U.S. citizens and non-permanent residents are not eligible to win a monetary prize (in whole or in part). Their participation as part of a winning Team or Entity, if applicable, may be recognized when the results are announced.
- Shall not be a federal employee acting within the scope of their employment;
- Shall not be an employee of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, or any other component of HHS) acting in their personal capacity;
- Who is employed by a federal agency or entity other than HHS (or any component of HHS), should consult with an agency ethics official to determine whether the federal ethics rules will limit or prohibit the acceptance of a prize under this Challenge;
- Shall not be a judge of the Challenge, or any other party involved with the design, production, execution, or distribution of the Challenge or the immediate family of such a party (i.e., spouse, parent, step-parent, child, or step-child).
- In the case of any individuals participating on a Team or on behalf of an Entity, shall be 18 years of age or older at the time of submission.
Rules
1) Participants may not use Federal funds from a grant award or cooperative agreement to develop their challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support of their challenge submissions.
2) Federal contractors may not use federal funds from a contract to develop their Challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support or their Challenge submissions.
3) By participating in this Challenge, each Participant agrees to assume any and all risks and waive claims against the federal government and its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from participation in this Challenge, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.
4) Based on the subject matter of the Challenge, the type of work that it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood of any claims for death, bodily injury, property damage, or loss potentially resulting from Challenge participation, no Participant participating in the Challenge is required to obtain liability insurance, or demonstrate financial responsibility, or agree to indemnify the federal government against third party claims for damages arising from or related to Challenge activities in order to participate in this Challenge.
5) A Participant shall not be deemed ineligible because the Participant used federal facilities or consulted with federal employees during the Challenge if the facilities and employees are made available to all Participants participating in the Challenge on an equitable basis.
6) By participating in this Challenge, each Participant warrants that they are sole author or owner of, or has the right to use, any copyrightable works that the submission comprises, that the works are wholly original with the Participant (or is an improved version of an existing work that the Participant has sufficient rights to use and improve), and that the submission does not infringe any copyright or any other rights of any third party of which the Participant is aware.
7) By participating in this Challenge, each Participant grants to the NIH and FASEB an irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to reproduce, publish, post, link to, share, and display publicly the submission on the web or elsewhere, and a nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license to practice, or have practiced for or on its behalf, the solution throughout the world. Each Participant will retain all other intellectual property rights in their submissions, as applicable. To participate in the Challenge, each Participant must warrant that there are no legal obstacles to providing the above-referenced nonexclusive licenses of the Participant’s rights to the federal government and FASEB. To receive an award, Participants will not be required to transfer their intellectual property rights to NIH or FASEB, but Participants must grant to the federal government and FASEB the nonexclusive licenses recited herein.
8) Each Participant agrees to follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies.
9) Each Participant participating in this Challenge must comply with all terms and conditions of these rules, and participation in this Challenge constitutes each such Participant’s full and unconditional agreement to abide by these rules. Winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements herein.
10) As a condition for winning a cash prize in this Challenge, each Participant that has been selected as a winner must complete and submit all requested winner verification and payment documents to NIH within ten (10) business days of formal notification. Failure to return all required verification documents by the date specified in the notification may be a basis for disqualification of a cash prize winning submission.
11) Multiple submissions from the same Participant will be accepted as long as the subject of each submission is distinct.
12) Submissions will be considered ineligible if they: a) Propose projects that do not include data from a GREI repository, b) Propose only using/analyzing data generated by the Participant(s) from their own previous projects, and/or c) Propose to collect/generate new experimental data.
Expectations for winners
All winners will be expected to present at the DataWorks! Prize Symposium (2025) and participate in subsequent DataWorks! programming related to teaching and uptake of data sharing and reuse practices in the research community for a period of 12 months after the winner announcement.
Outputs of secondary analysis from all Phase 2 Participants are required to be shared in a publicly available site and uploaded to a relevant repository; further guidance on how winners can satisfy this requirement will be provided to the Phase 2 Participants.
Evaluation 1A: Expert Review
All submissions will be reviewed for completeness and eligibility by Challenge staff. Eligible submissions will include answers to all questions.
All eligible submissions will be reviewed by a panel of experts in the fields of data science, informatics, and data management, who will score each of the following criteria based on the evaluation rubric. The highest rated submissions will be included in the shortlisted candidates, who will advance to Evaluation 1B: panel review by federal officials. Up to 20 submissions will be shortlisted.
Evaluation 1B: Panel Review by Federal Officials
A panel of NIH and other federal officials will review the shortlisted submissions and provide scores and recommendations for advancement of up to 10 teams to the second phase of the challenge and receipt of a $25,000 monetary award.
The criteria for Evaluation 1A and Evaluation 1B include:
Secondary Analysis
● Are the secondary analysis research aims and hypotheses clearly articulated?
● Are relevant protocols, methods for data collection, analysis and findings generation clearly articulated? Are constraints related to data quality and/or completeness addressed?
● Is the data utilized in an ethical and non-discriminatory manner?
● Are relevant supporting documents provided?
Weight: 30%
Outcomes and Outputs
● Are the outputs and format of findings clearly defined?
● Is the plan for disseminating and sharing their outputs, including analysis, findings, and data, clearly articulated?
● Does the project address FAIR, and where relevant, CARE principles? Are persistent identifiers provided for relevant data used for the secondary analysis?
● Does the project address replicability and reproducibility of secondary analysis results?
Weight: 30%
Impact / Scientific Significance
● Does the project demonstrate contributions to relevant scientific disciplines?
● Does the project demonstrate impact, if any, on diagnosis, treatment, and/or prevention?
● Does the project demonstrate contributions to best practices for data reuse and secondary analysis?
Weight: 30%
Team Capacity
· Does the team demonstrate relevant skills and expertise needed to complete the proposed project?
Weight: 10%
A panel of experts will review all secondary analysis projects for completion. Completed projects will be reviewed by NIH/federal officials to confirm that each project demonstrates completion of the objectives of the project proposed in phase 1 and nominate projects for the award category selection.
Criteria for Phase 2 and recognition awards include:
Secondary Analysis
● Does the implementation of the research project align with the proposed research aims and hypotheses?
● Are relevant protocols, methods for data collection, analysis and findings effectively implemented? Are constraints related to data quality and/or completeness addressed?
● Is the data utilized in an ethical and non-discriminatory manner?
● Are relevant supporting documents provided?
Weight: 33%
Outcomes and Outputs
● Are the outputs and format of findings clearly articulated?
● Is the plan for disseminating and sharing their outputs, including analysis, findings, and data, clearly articulated and implemented?
● Does the project address FAIR, and where relevant, CARE principles? Are persistent identifiers provided for all relevant data used in the project?
● Does the project address replicability and reproducibility of secondary analysis results?
Weight: 33%
Impact / Scientific Significance
● Does the project demonstrate contributions to relevant scientific disciplines?
● Does the project demonstrate impact, if any, on diagnosis, treatment, and/or prevention?
● Does the project demonstrate contributions to best practices for data reuse and secondary analysis?
Weight: 34%
Registration Process
This Challenge announcement can be found on the challenge.gov website and on the HeroX website. The Challenge registration and submission portals will be administered by HeroX, a platform provider under contract with FASEB. Participants can access the prize portal by going to the HeroX website - herox.com/dataworks.
To register, Participants will first be directed to establish an account in the HeroX platform and agree to the HeroX Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. All Participants must certify they have read and understand and agree to abide by the official eligibility criteria, participation rules, and requirements for the Challenge as stated in this announcement.
This is a team-based challenge. Participants will be required to identify whether they are registering in the Challenge as one of the following: as an independent Team (i.e., registering as a group of individuals competing together but not on behalf of an established organization, institution, or corporation) or as an Entity (i.e., registering as a group of individuals competing together on behalf of a legally established organization, institution, or corporation). Individual Participants who are neither part of a Team nor competing on behalf of an Entity are not eligible to participate in this Challenge. Participants will need to provide the name, affiliation, and contact information of all individuals competing in this Challenge as part of a Team or on behalf of an Entity. All Participants must certify they have read, understand, and agree to abide by the official eligibility rules, participation rules, and requirements for the Challenge as stated in this announcement.
● For Teams: Each participating Team is required to identify a Team Captain who will register and submit on behalf of the Team members. The Team Captain is responsible for all communications with the Challenge sponsors and, in the event of winning a cash prize, will be paid the prize in full. To be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Team Captain must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. In the event that a dispute regarding the identity of the Team Captain who actually submitted the entry cannot be resolved to NIH’s satisfaction, the affected submission will be deemed ineligible.
● For Entities: Each participating Entity is required to identify a Point of Contact who will register and submit on behalf of the Entity. The Point of Contact is responsible for all communications with the Challenge sponsors. In the event of winning a cash prize, the prize will be paid directly to the Entity, not to the Point of Contact. To be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Entity must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States. In the event that a dispute regarding the identity of the Point of Contact who actually submitted the entry cannot be resolved to NIH’s satisfaction, the affected submission will be deemed ineligible.
Participants must complete their registration by 11:59 Eastern Time on October 23, 2024. Participants who do not complete their registration by the deadline will not have their submissions considered for this Challenge.
Submission Requirements
Participants who completed the registration process prior to the registration deadline must submit their entries via the HeroX submission portal herox.com/dataworks. Submissions will include a written summary of new/exceptional research outcomes that were catalyzed by data reuse activities, using story-focused prompts.
Submission Audience
Research teams in biological, biomedical or health sciences who are actively engaged in hypothesis-driven research.
Phase One Submission Scope
Up to 3-page overview (based on prompts) of the proposed research project, description of the catalytic impact on human health, and summary of proposed process, findings, and/or outcomes.
Submitters will provide answers using a web form on the HeroX platform.
Note – submissions will be considered ineligible if they:
a) Propose projects that do not include data from a GREI repository
b) Propose only using/analyzing data generated by the Participant(s) from their own previous projects
c) Propose to collect/generate new experimental data
Overview/Abstract (Formatted text - 1000 characters) :
Provide a brief and compelling summary of the secondary analysis you propose to conduct and its impact on scientific understanding and/or human health.
Secondary Analysis (Formatted text - 3000 characters):
Research Aims:
Describe the secondary analysis project proposed:
- Describe the data that will be utilized in this project including source, location of data, data type, and amount.
- Describe how the project will incorporate data from a GREI repository
- Describe the methods and analysis that will be used in the proposed project
- Briefly summarize your suggested timeline for the proposed project.
Outcomes and Outputs (Formatted text - 3000 characters) :
Describe how you will share and disseminate the outcomes of your research project. Address the following specifics:
- Describe the research findings and summary of outcomes expected from the project
- Describe how findings will be shared and in what location(s)
- Describe how the proposed project will address FAIR, and where relevant, CARE principles (https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/) (https://www.gida-global.org/care )
- Describe how the project will address replicability and reproducibility of secondary analysis results
Impact/ Scientific Significance (Formatted text - 3000 characters) :
Help us understand the impact of your proposed research project on human health:
- Describe the contributions to the relevant scientific disciplines
- Describe the impact, if any, on diagnosis, treatment, and/or prevention
Team (Formatted text - 1500 characters):
Describe your team. Briefly discuss how your team came together, and how you collaborate. Please include your skills and experience in statistical analysis.
Considerations (Formatted text - 1000 characters):
Describe the key considerations that will ensure the success of the proposed research project.
Supporting Documents (Formatted text - up to 10 URLs):
Provide resources for the evaluation of your secondary research project including but not limited to:
- The persistent identifier of the dataset(s) to be used in the proposed project (where available)
- Tools/workflows or resources to be utilized in the proposed project
- Relevant references or scientific publications that directly relate to the proposed project
Non-scored Criteria
- Each research team may participate in this challenge on behalf of an Entity (such as an academic institution or private company) or as a Team composed of individuals not associated with one entity. Research teams must designate if they will participate on behalf of an Entity or as an unaffiliated Team at the submission stage. Are you participating in this challenge on behalf of an Entity? (yes/no) If yes: please provide the name of the Entity that you are participating in this challenge on behalf of. (300 characters)
- List the three to five specific research disciplines for which your submission is most applicable (300 characters)
- Is the majority of your team operating in an IDeA state as defined by NIH NIGMS https://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/DRCB/IDeA/Pages/default.aspx
- Is the majority of your team or entity operating out of a Minority Serving Institution as defined by the U.S. Department of Education https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/programs.html
- Please confirm that you have read and understand the terms of eligibility for this competition which can be found in the rules section of this announcement.
- Have you or a member of your team participated in a prior DataWorks! Prize? If yes, please list the year, participant name and team name (500 characters)
Project teams are expected to complete the project as outlined in phase one and develop a summary of the secondary analysis project completed including outputs, findings, and review of impact and potential uses of the analysis, which may take the form of a preprint or publication if desired. In addition to this summary, teams must complete the following questions. Submitters will provide answers using a web form on the HeroX platform.
Overview/Abstract (1000 characters)
- Provide a brief and compelling summary of the secondary analysis you conducted and its impact on scientific understanding and/or human health.
Secondary Analysis (5,000 characters)
- Provide an overview of the research project completed including methods, results and conclusions
- How was data from GREI repository included in your secondary analysis project?
- What other data was used in this project including source, location of data, data type, and amount.
- How did your project address the scientific question that was proposed?
Outcomes and Outputs (4,000 characters)
Summarize the outcomes and outputs of your research project. Be sure to address the following specifics:
- Describe the outcomes and outputs of your research project
- Describe methods, metadata considerations and conclusions
- Describe the standards, resources and tools that are involved in this secondary analysis project
- Describe how replicability and reproducibility are addressed
Impact (3,000 characters)
- Help us understand the impact of your research project on human health:
- Describe the contributions to the relevant scientific disciplines
- Describe the impact, if any, on diagnosis, treatment, and/or prevention
Considerations (1500 characters)
- Was the proposed project completed within the period of award?
- Were there revisions to the scope or approach of your project during the implementation phase?
- Please provide a summary of constraints in data and the data resources accessed and how they were addressed
Research Quality (1000 characters)
- Please describe the methods and approaches taken to validate the quality and completeness of the data used
- Summarize any issues or barriers related to research data quality or completeness that you encountered in the implementation of your project
Non-scored Criteria
- Provide an overview of the challenges that you addressed related to data reuse (1000 characters)
- What were the challenges and how did you overcome them related to reuse of data within the selected repository(ies)
- What were the challenges and how did you overcome these challenges related to analyses
- Provide a video summarizing the secondary research analysis project you completed. (Video should be no longer than 2 minutes.)
- Video should include:
- A summary of the research aim addressed
- The scientific findings and outputs
- The impact of the project on human health
- Supporting Documents (up to 10 URLs) - Provide resources for the evaluation of your secondary research project including but not limited to:
- Publicly available outputs of the secondary analysis including results, methods, conclusions and relevant metadata
- The persistent identifier of the datasets used and generated
- Standards, tools, and metadata associated with the implementation outputs
- Relevant articles, preprints, or scientific publications that directly relate to the proposed project
For Further Information Contact:
All questions regarding the DataWorks! Prize should be sent to dataworks@faseb.org.
