CICI: RDP: Open Badge Researcher Credentials for Secure Access to Restricted and Sensitive Data

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This project reduces the complexity in protecting research data by developing and piloting an open badge research credential system (OBRCS). Open badges are visual tokens that signal achievement, affiliation, authorization, or another trust relationship and are shareable across the web. The challenges of managing and protecting restricted data mean that data providers are often wary of sharing sensitive data or that data ends up in the wrong hands, and potential gains to society and science from using those data go unrealized. OBRCS allows researchers to present their evolving credentials openly and to record their achievements and credentials publicly and enables more collaboration, facilitates data re-use, and supports replication efforts. OBRCS benefits the scientific community by ensuring the integrity, resilience, and reliability of research data.Combining and analyzing collections of data enable scientific breakthroughs. Efficient, secure data sharing and reuse facilitates collaboration and replication, leading to better science. However, managing different access policies, authenticating, and authorizing access to sensitive data is a challenge faced by all data management organizations. Unauthorized access threatens the integrity of data and the privacy of study participants and these threats can impact the conclusions researchers draw. The project achieves these goals through three main activities: (a) develops an open badge system for managing researcher credentials, (b) articulates levels of data sensitivity and risk that indicate criteria for access, and (c) identifies the right balance between openness and privacy for data users in a restricted data access system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.