Over the past year or so I have been fortunate to serve on the National Academies Committee on Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data. You can find more details about this work here

Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data

This study will develop and demonstrate a framework for forecasting long-term costs for preserving, archiving, and accessing various types of biomedical data and estimating potential future benefits to research.

Yesterday, the final report of the committee, "Lifecycle Decisions for Biomedical Data: The Challenge of Forecasting Costs" was released.While I may of course be biased, I think that it offers a valuable and somewhat novel view of data lifecycles, costs and management in biomedicine. I invite you to have a look at the executive summary, at a minimum. There will likely be some kind of online event summarizing the findings of the report in the coming weeks, and if so I'll share the information here.

Note that while the PDF is available for free download now, the final printed version of the report (and an updated final PDF) will be some time in preparation. Typically these are just minor editorial and formatting changes, however: the findings of the report are final.

The report can be downloaded or read online here:

Life-Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data

Biomedical research results in the collection and storage of increasingly large and complex data sets. Preserving those data so that they are discoverable, accessible, and interpretable accelerates scientific discovery and improves health outcomes, but requires that researchers, data curators, and data archivists consider the long-term disposition of data and the costs of preserving, archiving, and promoting access to them. Life Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data examines and assesses approache...

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI