HDR UK as Data Controller for ICODA

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HDR UK as Data Controller for ICODA

The International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) was convened by HDR UK. ICODA developed a Data Controllership capability which allowed HDR UK to act as a Data Controller in specific limited circumstances for ICODA, to enable streamlined research and accelerate discoveries to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach was piloted with the Grand Challenges ICODA pilot project DP-RASUP based at Fiocruz in Brazil. As Data Controller HDR UK would have authority to make specific data access decisions, for purposes defined in the Data Contributor Agreement, following our transparent and published processes detailed below.  

We created the following governance process and documents to enable HDR UK to fulfil this role: 

  1. Data Contributors completed the due diligence questionnaire for their data.  
  2. Data Contributors signed a Data Contributor Agreement with HDR UK. 
  3. HDR UK put data processing agreements in place with any requisite Databanks or Trusted Research Environments (TREs) where the data would reside.  
  4. HDR UK used our published Review Processes to ascertain whether researchers are suitable and have a project with public benefit before allowing access to data.  
  5. Approved Researcher’s Institutions needed to sign a Data Access Agreement with HDR.  
  6. Researchers had to agree to our Workbench Terms of Use before proceeding with their research.  
  7. Any outputs from research were subject to our Output Review Process.  

These documents and processes were prepared for others to make use of to avoid continual creation of similar processes. You may make use of these documents or processes if you wish. If you do so, please ensure you follow our Attribution Policy. If you have any comments or queries on these documents please email dataprotection@hdruk.ac.uk  

We would like to thank Aridhia Informatics, Preva Group, and the SAIL Databank for their support creating and reviewing these documents.  

 

Supporting documents

For Data Contributors:

For Researchers & Research institutions:

Generic data controllership agreements for re-use

These agreements were created as part of the ICODA programme. They are open, free to use and amend as needed in support of establishing your organisation as a data controller, we just request you attribute us following our Attribution Policy