The Research Data Security and Compliance Program assists the University community with navigating the increasingly complex regulatory environment to ensure research data are managed, utilized, and shared responsibly and in accordance with third party obligations, privacy regulations, and University policies related to research data.  Among the specific areas for which we provide support are research data acquisition and sharing, review and implementation of data use agreements and sponsored projects involving sensitive data, implementing data protection standards such as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), Export Controlled information, and human subjects data, and traveling internationally with University – owned, controlled, or managed data.  

Properly protecting research data is a fundamental obligation that is grounded in the values of stewardship, data integrity, and honoring commitments to the providers and sources of the data.  It is also the responsibility of everyone involved in the development, proposal, conduct, administration/support, and reporting of research. Research data security is essential to the ongoing health of the research environment including, but not limited to, maintaining public trust in and support for research.

In an academic setting where the vast majority of research data is intended to be openly published it may seem counterintuitive to worry about data security; however, even when there is an intent to publish, it's still important to protect the integrity of the data, assure accessibility, and control access so the researchers who developed the idea, data, algorithm, methodology, hypothesis, model, analysis, etc. are the ones who decide what, when, how, and to whom it is released. With respect to sponsored research data, the data belongs to the institution (or in limited situations to the sponsor) with the Principal Investigator serving as the data custodian charged with making sure data is appropriately safeguarded and shared consistent with institutional policies, terms and conditions, and applicable laws/regulations.

Need Assistance?  
Andrew Bedotto, Research Data Security & Compliance Program Manager