Project Phases: Active and Archive

The NSF Division of Earth Sciences Data and Sample Policy defines the exclusive-use period (the time when only the original PIs and their post-docs and students have access to the samples) as a maximum of 2 years from the date of sample collection. Data generated at the CSD Facility are subject to the same 2-year period of exclusive use (from the date of generation). In accordance with the terms used at some marine core repositories, the CSD Facility uses the phrase “Active Phase” to denote NSF’s “exclusive-use period,” and “Archive Phase” for the period of time following the conclusion of the Active Phase. The CSD Facility is bound by these governing NSF rules, but Facility personnel and the EAG recognize the impact of this policy on project PIs and mitigate these concerns through:

• Rejection of requests for samples intended for analyses that duplicate ongoing efforts
• Rejection of sample requests that would consume large sample volumes or deplete entire intervals of a core
• Providing sampling services and sample shipment to PI(s) in lieu of PI sampling visits
• Providing support for ICD efforts to get samples and data to the PI(s) as quickly as possible
• Courtesy notification to original PIs when material is requested from cores they collected.

At the start of the Archive Phase, sample requests will be allowed (subject to the standard review process described herein), and all data generated at the CSD Facility will be made available to the research community.