Germany, unlike a lot of other countries, has a Research Data Centre (RDC) Infrastructure with over 40 different centres. At the moment, researchers do not often have enough skills to handle these complex and highly sensitive data in an efficient way. One possibility to overcome this situation is to offer researchers online training, which fulfils the needs of many RDCS and will be accepted by many RDCs.

The purpose of this proposal/program is to consider the feasibility of developing a suite of online training modules that would function to prepare researchers to safely use sensitive, potentially disclosive data via RDCs/Secure Data Centres/Safe Havens. The training status of the researchers would then be integrated with an Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI) to enable researchers to take evidence of their training to other data providers. This program would initially be focused upon researchers in Germany but would have the potential to be expanded across Europe in alignment with the objectives of the European Open Science Cloud (ESOC) project.

At present there is little consistency with regard to training for researchers who wish to access sensitive data in Germany. Some researchers will be expected to undergo service-specific training but in many cases the only data handling training that researchers will receive is the general data protection training mandated by their institution. As such training is designed to cover a wide range of roles, it is unlikely to cover topics such as Statistical Disclosure Control, which are considered important for researchers working with sensitive data.

In the UK, an Accredited Researcher scheme was launched as part of the introduction of the Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA). The DEA requires that researchers wishing to undertake analyses using sensitive data provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) receive training provided by one of a small number of approved services. Upon successful completion of the training, the researcher is granted Accredited Researcher status which enables them to access ONS services. Following the ONS’s lead, a number of other services, including those providing health data, now request that researchers obtain Accredited Researcher status when applying for data. The formalisation of training in this way has a number of benefits:

1. Researchers have a better idea of how to work with sensitive data and so are less likely to make mistakes that might prove harmful to data subjects.

1. Researchers do not need to undergo similar training courses repeatedly as their trained and accredited status can be carried to other services.

1. It supports the Safe People aspect of the 5 Safes Model by providing standardised training materials delivered by experienced services.

1. The process of analysing sensitive data in a RDC and publishing results from projects in an RDC will be more efficient for both sides: the researchers and the RDC staff, because they have more knowledge about disclosure and the procedures are known from the beginning of a project.

We propose the implementation of a similar scheme for Germany, whilst improving on some aspects of the approach in the UK.

The training offered to researchers would consist of a number of core modules that are deemed to be mandatory for all. These modules would then be augmented by additional modules that are service, data-type, or role specific.