Useful life of preserved data extends to horizon of scientific interest under Tier 3

Every additional year of preservation extends the window during which downstream researchers can build on the data, producing the compounding reuse pattern E-0114 documents — approximately 150 reuse papers per 100 deposited datasets within five years, with citation and reuse returns continuing across the useful life of the data (S-0055).

Under the current regime that useful life is truncated at the point of loss, typically the grant-cycle terminus C-0019 makes structural. Under Tier 3, the architectural property C-0036 establishes (preservation horizon decoupled from project budget) produces a different upper bound: the data persists wherever it has been replicated regardless of the originating grant's status, and the useful life extends to the horizon of continued scientific interest rather than the fiscal year of a funding cycle.

The reuse measurements documented at §7.5 (E-0114, C-0031) are therefore lower bounds rather than steady-state estimates. They were measured against preservation regimes that already truncate at the grant cycle; the returns measurable against a regime that does not truncate have not yet been priced because the regime does not yet exist. C-0031's positive ROI across documented studies thus understates the return the architectural recommendation would produce — the multiplier from continued reuse beyond grant termination is not present in any of the existing measurements.

This is the strongest empirical link between the §7.5 returns argument and the §9 implication argument: the same studies whose ROI is documented at 5x to 800x are measuring a truncated regime.