The grant is dead, long live the data

Abstract

Open research, data sharing and data re-use have become a priority for publicly- and charity-funded research. Efficient data management naturally requires computational resources that assist in data description, preservation and discovery. While it is possible to fund development of data management systems, currently it is more difficult to sustain data resources beyond the original grants. That puts the safety of the data at risk and undermines the very purpose of data gathering. PlaSMo model repository was envisioned by the systems biology community in 2005 with the initial funding lasting till 2010. We addressed the sustainability of the PlaSMo repository and assured preservation of these data by implementing an exit strategy. For our exit strategy we migrated data to an alternative public repository of secured funding. We describe details of our decision process and aspects of the implementation. Our experience may serve as an example for other projects in similar situation. The experience of shutting down a community repository, while preserving its data, challenges some of the popular views of the feasibility of Research Data Management. We share our reflections on sustainability of biological data management, possible income streams and the future outcomes for its funding.