OSTP Nelson Memo (Aug 2022) — immediate open access to federally funded research and data; >$90B/yr

The Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research" (the Nelson Memo, August 25, 2022) directs all federal agencies to update public-access policies eliminating the 12-month embargo for publications and data. Agency plans were to be finalized by December 31, 2024 and in effect by end of 2025. The memo covers more than $90 billion in annual federal research funding.

For C-0003 and C-0025: the Nelson Memo is the cross-agency umbrella under which the NIH DMS Policy (E-0044), NSF DMP gating (E-0091), and successor-agency public-access requirements operate. Its operational consequence is that immediate open access to data — not just publications — becomes the default federal funding condition across the research enterprise. The architectural question of whether a grantee can in fact produce the data on inspection becomes, under the Nelson Memo's coverage, a question every federally funded researcher in the United States must answer.