ACF fosters a data-driven culture to enhance policy, program decisions and service delivery. Its inaugural 2024 Data Strategy advances user-friendly policies for efficient data sharing, linkage and access, with a strong focus on quality, transparency, privacy and security. To support a consistent experience for ACF’s grantees, ACF is building infrastructure and expertise across its offices.

ACF data assets are accessible through archives like the Federal Statistical Research Data Center Network, with access handled by each research institution’s processes. For new requests, external parties may contact data owners listed in ACF’s Public Data Catalog. Certain data sources with specific restrictions, such as the National Directory of New Hires, have dedicated processes and forms, including a guide and research request form. For other programs, ACF provides a standardized Data-Sharing Request form for external research access, along with guidance for ACF staff to evaluate these requests. In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ACF has developed a standard Data Use Agreement (DUA) format with approved clauses for sharing data with third parties, aligned with the HHS DUA policy, which also requires centralized tracking of these agreements.

ACF’s data priorities span organizational domains: leaders foster data-driven decisions, staff are equipped with secure data tools, and engagement systems promote collaboration across ACF to advance equitable data use and evidence-building.

Ensuring open data access, maintaining data inventories, and pursuing data partnerships within and outside of the federal government are critical for strengthening the data-driven elements of the federal culture of evidence. ACL provides a leading example of all three practices through its Aging, Independence, and Disability Portal (AGID). Read more on p. 21 of The Power of Evidence to Drive America’s Progress.

ACL follows the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) guidelines for complying with the five requirements of the Open Data Policy (OMB M-13-13), overseen by the HHS Office of the Chief Information Officer, to ensure public access to federally funded research. In accordance with the Open Data Policy, ACL published a Public Access Plan to make peer-reviewed publications and scientific data from its funded research available to the public. Additionally, ACL offers access to program data through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and REHABDATA.

As part of HHS, ACL uses the HHS Data Strategy for its strategic data plan. In line with the Evidence Act, ACL established a council to enhance its data governance, including better processes and standards for managing data from evaluations, grant reporting and administrative performance measures. The ACL Data Council’s key activities, deliverables and accomplishments are summarized in its Year 1 and Year 2 reports.

ACL follows guidance from the National Center for Health Statistics, HHS’ principal statistical agency, when sharing data, particularly if it’s sensitive. For example, ACL conducts the annual National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants to collect data on Title III programs. While survey results are publicly available, access to data files requires data-sharing agreements.

SAMHSA is dedicated to making agency data open and available to the public, balanced with the need to respect and ensure privacy. Data collections featured are DAWN (Drug Abuse Warning Network), N-MHSS (National Mental Health Services Survey), TEDS (Treatment Episode Data Set), MH-CLD (Mental Health Client-Level Data), N-SSATS (National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services), NSDUH (National Survey on Drug Use and Health) and URS (Uniform Reporting System). As a Federal Statistical Unit, SAMHSA adheres to the publicly available Statement of Commitment to Scientific Integrity by Principal Statistical Agencies. To promote ethical use of sensitive SAMHSA data, restricted-use data are available via Research Data Gov, a web portal shared by Federal Statistical Agencies for discovering and requesting access to restricted microdata.

SAMHSA’s 2023-2026 Data Strategy focuses on equity and aligns with the agency’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. (Two of the four core principles in the Strategic Plan are Equity and Commitment to Data and Evidence, which are integrated throughout the agency’s activities.) The Office of Evaluation (OE) within the Center for Behavioral Statistics and Quality (CBHSQ) developed the Advancing SAMHSA Programs in Reaching Equity (ASPIRE) dashboard to provide senior leaders with easily accessible data and feedback on reaching equity around SAMHSA program participants. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) evaluation officer included the ASPIRE dashboard as a case study in an upcoming HHS toolkit. The ASPIRE case study is a collaboration between the Division of Evidence, Evaluation and Data Policy (DEEDP) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Evaluation and Planning and the ASPIRE team members from SAMHSA’s OBHE and CBHSQ.

The agency is committed to making its data publicly accessible. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) is a one-stop shop for SAMHSA public use data, including online analytic capabilities and downloadable datasets. The agency also has an online data analysis system dedicated to its highest-impact studies. Finally, SAMHSA has established standardized data-sharing processes. Its data-sharing agreement, available upon request from the SAMHSA data privacy officer, is used with contractors who work with or have access to sensitive client-level data. Along with other Federal Statistical Agencies, SAMHSA is currently working to further streamline and standardize public data access processes. The Evidence Act requires the establishment of a Standard Application Process. SAMHSA is diligently working with peer agencies to implement this requirement. Currently, selected restricted-use data are available upon completion of an application and review.

The agency has documented user-friendly policies and practices to expedite internal and external data sharing, linkage and access. DOL has established an open data plan and an enterprise data strategy. The agency is also required by law to maintain a Geospatial Data Strategy, which can be found here. DOL’s data strategy includes four guiding principles: “(1) making data findable, (2) making data accessible, (3) making data interoperable, and (4) making data reusable; or the “FAIR” principles for short.” The strategy is built around five strategic goals, which include: “(1) ensuring data are managed to be open by default, (2) ensuring data are comprehensible, (3) ensuring data are fit for purpose, (4) ensuring data are available in consistent and predictable ways, and (5) managing data as an enterprise asset, incorporate stakeholder input, and as appropriate, made public in ways that provide real benefit to data users.”

DOL makes the vast majority of its data public and lists those datasets on data.gov and through topical areas in its data enforcement portal. The agency also offers a public version of its enterprise data inventory, along with other data governance tools, here. DOL has standardized approaches for accessing restricted-use data for programs outside the Federal Statistical System and programs outside the Federal Statistical System. The department’s Secure Transfer, Restricted-Use Data Lake (STRUDL) provides authorized external and internal researchers secure access to confidential data. Finally, DOL has created a number of template memorandums of understanding and processes designed to simplify data sharing within the enterprise and with external partners.

DOT demonstrates its commitment to evaluation, evidence and data use through its publicly available data management policy and strategic data plan, which is part of the agency’s overarching Strategic Plan. This plan, especially under Strategic Goal 4: Equity, uses data to drive improved outcomes and promotes principles of ethics and equity. For the first time, DOT has centered equity as a department-wide strategic goal, marking a significant step toward institutionalizing fairness and addressing disparities across transportation systems. Equity-centered strategic action documents support this focus, such as the DOT Equity Action Plan, the Justice40 Initiative, and the Tribal Consultation Policy, which align data initiatives with broader goals.

DOT developed the Transportation Data + Equity Hub to support this equity-centered approach, offering tools, metrics and data to assess community access to transportation and identify existing challenges. DOT’s Public Access Plan also provides a structured process to make federally funded research and its data publicly accessible, in line with the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy’s guidelines. This framework enhances public access to research data, including datasets prepared for the National Transportation Library, where partners can also request custom datasets vetted for security. These resources reinforce DOT’s commitment to transparency, equity and evidence-based policymaking. DOT’s Secure Data Commons (SDC) is a cloud-based analytics platform that enables traffic engineers, researchers and data scientists to access, analyze and connect transportation-related datasets. DOT created the SDC to provide a secure platform for sharing and collaborating on research, tools, algorithms, and analysis involving moderate sensitivity level datasets using commercially available tools, without needing to install tools or software locally.

In order to expedite internal and external data sharing, linkages and access, MCC has developed an open data policy and is currently developing a strategic data plan. The agency’s open data policy is detailed in the Digital Strategy and Open Government pages of the MCC website. MCC’s Open Data Policy outlines the agency’s use of open data resources — including country, program, evaluation, financial and procurement data — to improve results. It also makes extensive program data, including financials and results data, publicly available through its Open Data Catalog. The catalog includes an enterprise data inventory of all data resources across the agency, and is available to both internal staff and external users. MCC also publishes program data collected from surveys and other research activities to the MCC Evidence Platform. Both sites allow for MCC data to be shared in an open data environment with machine-readable formats for users, promoting transparency to provide people with access to information that facilitates their understanding of MCC’s model, decision-making processes, and the results of its investments. Restricted-use data is available on the MCC Evidence Platform to approved applicants via a Virtual Data Enclave. For data inquiries or more information on MCC’s various data-sharing platforms, external users can email MCC. MCC also developed guidelines on transparent, reproducible, and ethical data and documentation (TREDD) for implementing ethical data collection, using results and facilitating MCC’s observance of the general principles of the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, or “Common Rule.” MCC’s Equity Action Plan outlines its approach to advancing equity by supporting improved capacity for data collection and analysis so that counterpart agencies in government incorporate gender and inclusion into their planning and policy more systematically.