Sharing research data to improve public health: A joint statement of purpose

The Wellcome Trust and other UK funders of public health research have issued a joint statement on sharing research data to improve public health. The statement (full text here) announces the funders' intention "to work together to increase the availability to the scientific community of the research data we fund that is collected from populations for the purpose of health research, and to promote the efficient use of those data to accelerate improvements in public health."

The statement also articulates principles, immediate goals, and longer term aspirations.  It calls for greater access to and use of data, subject to the principles that this should be equitable, ethical and efficient. The Immediate goals expressed are:

• Data management standards support data sharing
• Data sharing is recognized as a professional achievement
• Secondary data users respect the rights of producers and add value to the data they use

Longer-term aspirations include:

• Well documented data sets are available for secondary analysis
• Capacity to manage and analyse data is strengthened
• Published work and data are linked and archived.
• Data sharing is sustainably resourced for the long term

The statement was launched on 10 January 2011, with a comment piece in 'The Lancet' by Wellcome Trust director Mark Walport and Hewlett Foundation president Paul Brest. See: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Spotlight-issues/Data-sharing/Public-health-and-epidemiology/WTDV030689.htm