Project description

The Data Privacy Project is a broad data support effort within Utrecht University, the Netherlands and is funded by Utrecht University’s Research IT program and a Digital Competence Center grant from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

The problem

At the moment, knowledge about handling privacy-sensitive data appears limited or at best, scattered - both among researchers as well as research support. This is likely because different disciplines or projects encounter different issues and/or approach them from different angles. Moreover, there is more personal data in scientific research than previously thought, and questions about translating privacy-related legislation into practical guidelines are getting more and more ubiquitous and complex.

Project aims

The aim of this project is to develop multidisciplinary knowledge of, tools about, and experience with how researchers can and should deal with personal data, with an emphasis on practical techniques, computational tools, legal policies and user experiences.

Project deliverables

The specific project goals are as follows:

• 🧠 Create a knowledge base and an overview of available tools for researchers to learn about handling personal data. The Data Privacy Handbook forms the basis for this this deliverable.
• 🛠️ Realize or expand a number of tools to solve concrete problems of research projects in this area. For this, we will take on use cases that are typical of various privacy-related questions.
• 🔍 Perform qualitative and quantitative investigations into the current practices and needs of Utrecht University research staff concerning the handling of privacy-sensitive data.
• 💪 Develop various training materials for researchers and support staff about dealing with personal data and the use of the available tools.

In all goals mentioned above, we want to collect information that is FAIR and actionable. Therefore, we are working together with privacy professionals, researchers and everyone in between to get a perspective that is as widely supported and applicable as possible.