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| 12 Aug 2026 | |
| Press Releases and Statements |
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 12, 2026 – Following the release of Science: A New Golden Age by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Data Foundation President and CEO Nick Hart, Ph.D., issued the following statement:
"The Data Foundation is a nonpartisan advocate for better government data and evidence. We take positions on the health, integrity, and continuity of the nation's data infrastructure. Our focus is the question that applies regardless of how the ongoing dialogues about funding and the organization of government resolve: whether the data foundations beneath these ambitions are actually built well.
The new OSTP report places data at the center of AI-enabled discovery, and it states plainly that much of the nation's most valuable scientific data is inaccessible, uncurated, or locked in incompatible formats. AI cannot deliver on its promise without curated, well-documented, high-quality public data. The data community has said this for years, and the Data Foundation's own Data Policy in the Age of AI guide made the same case: sound AI depends on high-quality data, effective governance, and technical capacity. That capacity relies on process knowledge, the report's own term for the hard-won expertise that accrues in the experts and civil servants who manage and troubleshoot federal data systems. This knowledge is inherently cross-disciplinary, and it is lost quickly when agencies work in silos or when unplanned attrition affects knowledge transfer. When we convened universities and nonprofits around the Administration's flagship Genesis Mission earlier this year, the forum reached the same conclusion: an AI-for-science initiative of that ambition is, at its core, a data challenge before it is an AI challenge.
The vision OSTP outlines in its new policy statement extends a foundation already in federal law. Open government data, secure researcher access, and AI-ready datasets build directly on the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, which President Trump signed into law in 2019, and on the OPEN Government Data Act within it. The OSTP report's call for new metascience units to study and evaluate how federal science is funded points the same way: rigorous evaluation depends on the accessible, well-documented data that the Data Foundation has long worked to strengthen, and on the evaluation capacity the Evidence Act already envisions. The Administration's own National AI Action Plan reached the same conclusion last year, prioritizing the data accessibility regulations under national statistical laws that would break down silos while protecting privacy. The fastest route to AI-ready science runs through finishing what is already started, including the September 2026 open data compliance milestone for the data governance community and the long-pending CIPSEA regulations expected from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Simply authorizing infrastructure, however, is not the same as building and sustaining it. The National Secure Data Service was authorized years ago at the National Science Foundation by legislation the Data Foundation and our Data Coalition members encouraged; the NSDS is ready to be scaled. Curation, documentation, and standardization are continuing operational commitments, not one-time tasks. A vision for science built on better data will be measured by whether agencies and the scientific community receive the capacity, standards, and stable funding to carry out that work.
Chief Data Officers (CDOs) are central to this effort, and they are already stretched thin. The Data Foundation's most recent Federal CDO Survey found a majority of federal CDOs operating with five or fewer staff even as they juggle AI-readiness deadlines, privacy and cybersecurity obligations, and cataloging mandates at once. Sustaining curation, documentation, and standardization means funding and empowering these officials — not assuming the work happens on its own. This is also where the difference between research and operations truly comes into focus. Running shared data infrastructure is an operational mandate, distinct from the project-based research many science agencies are built around. Shared data infrastructure succeeds only with cross-agency coordination and sustained support for the agencies asked to carry it.
Finally, the trust that makes data usable rests on its relevance, credibility, and objectivity. The OSTP report's emphasis on reproducibility, transparency, and data sharing aligns with principles already codified in the Evidence Act and its Public Trust Rule that applies to federal statistical agencies and their parent agencies, and with the fit-for-purpose evidence standards the Data Foundation has supported. These are commitments we proudly share. These principles hold only when the federal statistical system and evaluation programs retain independence, when confidentiality protections are preserved, and when surrounding policies consistently enable open publication, documentation, and access.
The Data Foundation will keep doing what we have done across administrations and political transitions: working to ensure the data systems the country depends on are sustainable, resilient, trustworthy, and accessible. We welcome the OSTP report's recognition that data is the foundation, and we stand ready to help build and strengthen this foundation in the years ahead."
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The Data Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that champions the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy to make society better for everyone. As a nonpartisan think tank, we conduct research, collaborative thought leadership, and advocacy programs that advance practical policies for the creation and use of accessible, trustworthy data. Our activities proactively address emerging data-related needs in the country with the goal of devising realistic solutions, accelerating policy coordination, and advancing innovation. The Data Foundation is recognized by Candid Guidestar with the Platinum Seal of Transparency and received 4-Stars from Charity Navigator. To learn more, visit www.datafoundation.org. (LEI: 254900I43CTC59RFW495)
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