Aaron Y. Lee, MD, MSCI, and team named Phase 1 finalists in the NIH S-Index Challenge for developing a novel metric to reward high-quality data sharing.
St. Louis, MO — September 16, 2025 — We are excited to share that Aaron Y. Lee, MD, MSCI, Arthur W. Stickle Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the WashU Medicine John F. Hardesty, MD Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, and his collaborators have been selected as one of seven finalist teams in the NIH Data Sharing Index (S-Index) Challenge. The recognition honors teams that develop novel approaches to incentivize high-quality research data sharing.
The project, titled A simple and field-aware S-index for promoting and rewarding data sharing, is led by Bhavesh Patel, PhD (California Medical Innovations Institute) with teammates Aaron Y. Lee, MD, MSCI and Sanjay Soundarajan (California Medical Innovations Institute). The team proposes a novel data-sharing index that accounts for FAIRness, citations, and alternative mentions, while remaining simple to interpret and field-sensitive. Their approach aims to highlight and reward researchers who prioritize high-quality, reusable data, supporting transparency, collaboration, and innovation across the research community.
The S-Index Challenge, administered by the National Eye Institute on behalf of NIH, is a $1-million competition designed to develop a metric that incentivizes excellence in data sharing. Inspired by the h-index, the S-index will recognize both the quality and quantity of data shared.
In Phase 1, seven finalist teams were recognized for their innovative proof-of-concept ideas. Each team will receive $15,000 and advance to Phase 2 of the Challenge to compete for the grand prize.