NIMH Data Archive (NDA)
Overview
The NIMH Data Archive (NDA) is the NIH National Institute of Mental Health’s controlled-access repository for human subjects research data on brain development, psychiatric disorders, and related conditions. Established to support NIMH’s data sharing policy requirements, it mandates that all NIMH-funded investigators submit research data and associated metadata for archiving and secondary use by the broader research community.
Scope and Data Structure
The NDA covers neuroimaging, genomics, clinical assessments, cognitive measures, and behavioural data from studies across the lifespan, including paediatric, adolescent, and adult populations. A defining characteristic of the NDA is its use of standardised data structures: all contributing investigators must map their data elements to centrally defined NDA data structures, enabling cross-study harmonisation and federated querying across the archive. The NDA Query Tool allows researchers to identify participants and variables of interest across studies before submitting a data access request.
Key Datasets
The flagship dataset is the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a longitudinal multisite study of brain development in approximately 10,000 children recruited at ages 9 to 10 across 21 US sites as of 2024. Other major hosted studies include the Human Connectome Project Development (HCP-D), the Healthy Brain and Cognitive Development (HBCD) study, and numerous NIMH-funded R01 and clinical trial datasets.
Access
Access requires completion of a Data Use Certification (DUC) reviewed by a data access committee, with all use restricted to non-commercial research purposes. There is no cost to researchers. The NDA Query Tool can be used to browse available variables and participant counts before submitting a request.
Connections
- implements: NIH Open Science Policy
Resources
- https://nda.nih.gov
- https://nda.nih.gov/get/access-data.html (data access request)
- https://nda.nih.gov/abcd (ABCD Study portal)