The Paul Fearn Award for Excellence in Data Sharing in Cancer Control and Population Sciences

The secondary use of data can accelerate innovation and drive discoveries, tool development, and reproducibility. Though data sharing can be challenging, policies and incentives can help facilitate and reward these efforts. To maximize the value of data produced through NIH awards, the NIH recently set forth comprehensive, modern data sharing requirements for all funded research with the 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. In light of this new comprehensive policy, the NCI's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) saw an opportunity to reward exemplary data sharers and add an incentive for future data sharing through the development of an award. In 2024, DCCPS established the "Paul Fearn Award for Excellence in Data Sharing" to promote recognition and celebrate data sharing within the field of population sciences. In its inaugural year, the award was given to researchers from four different projects, each exemplary in the sharing of DCCPS-funded work. Each awardee went above and beyond data sharing requirements to make data reusable for others. Their distinct data sharing achievements included making valuable historical datasets available, preparing accessible and easily downloadable datasets, and developing a novel data enclave and/or researcher data platform.