Notice Number: NOT-OD-15-086
Key Dates
Release Date: March 27, 2015
Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Purpose
The purpose of this Notice is to inform the research community that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now allowing investigators to request permission to transfer controlled-access genomic and associated phenotypic data obtained from NIH-designated data repositories1 that are under the auspices of the NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) Policy to public or private cloud systems for data storage and analysis. This change is being made in light of the advances made in security protocols for cloud computing2 in the past several years and given the expansion in the volume and complexity of genomic data generated by the research community.
NIH expects cloud computing systems to meet the data use and security standards outlined in NIH Security Best Practices for Controlled-Access Data Subject to the NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) Policy as well as the institution’s own IT security requirements and policies.
Investigators who wish to use cloud computing for storage and analysis will need to indicate in their Data Access Request (DAR) that they are requesting permission to use cloud computing and identify the cloud service provider or providers that will be employed. They also will need to describe how the cloud computing service will be used to carry out their proposed research.
As with data stored in institutional systems, the institution’s signing official, Program Director/Principal Investigator, IT Director, and any other personnel approved by NIH to access the data are responsible for ensuring the protection of the data. The institution, not the cloud service provider, assumes responsibility for any failure in the oversight of using cloud computing services for controlled-access data.
The NIH Security Best Practices for Controlled Access Data Subject to the NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) Policy, which have been updated to include best practices for cloud computing, are available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/pdf/dbgap_2b_security_procedures.pdf. The Model Data Use Certification has also been updated and is available at http://gds.nih.gov/pdf/Model_DUC.pdf . More information on NIH Genomic Data Sharing may be found at http://gds.nih.gov
Inquiries
Please direct all inquiries to:
Genomic Data Sharing Policy Team
Office of Science Policy
Telephone: 301-496-9838
Email: [email protected]