The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has supported collection of data and biospecimens from participants in numerous research studies. These well-characterized data and some associated specimens are valuable scientific resources that were generated with public funds. NICHD established the Data and Specimen Hub (DASH) as a data and specimen sharing mechanism that enables investigators to organize, store, and mine de-identified data from NICHD funded research studies for secondary research use. In some cases, DASH also provides access to residual biospecimens associated with studies that have research data archived in the NICHD DASH. The NICHD DASH was created to provide a validated site to promote dissemination of data and specimens from NICHD-funded studies for secondary analysis. DASH?s flexible architecture is designed to archive diverse data types and formats from NICHD?s broad portfolio in a manor that promotes FAIR data sharing principles: findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.
