Secure data access point network – RDCnet

The RDCnet builds on optimising the existing infrastructure rather than by physically moving the data. At its heart is a multilateral cooperation between partner institutions that grant one another remote access to their research data: one RDC can make its data available through another RDC’s secure infrastructure, more specifically through its guest researcher workstation (GRWS), and vice versa. Thus, the data continues to be analysed in controlled environments, while the number of access points grows with every partner that joins the network.

Three building blocks make this possible. First, a standardised cooperation agreement replaces separate bilateral contracts: a single signature enables cooperation with every partner in the network, under a common set of technical and organisational measures (TOMs) serving as minimum security standards. Second, technical guidance, rather than a predefubed system, keeps the setup flexible: each RDC can run its own remote-desktop system. For RDCs that have not yet implemented such a system, the RDCnet provides a reference guide for the implementation of a remote-desktop system and also a guide on how to set up and configure the secured terminals that are used as the GRWS itself. Third, a shared administrative layer, RDCdesk, replaces the error-prone email coordination between several parties currently involved in booking collaborative GRWS.

For researchers, the benefit is simple: more locations and thus lower costs. As the network grows, so does the number of workstations where sensitive data can be analysed, and you can select the one nearest to you. Reduced travel and accommodation mean noticeably lower expenses, and fewer obstacles between an empirical research question and its answer.

For research data centres, the RDCnet is a way to increase the actual use of their data. Every partner takes on the mandatory role of a data-receiving party, setting up a GRWS where the data of other cooperation partners can be accessed, which makes the institution more attractive to researchers in its own region. Partners may additionally act as a data-providing party, offering their own data across the network while always retaining full authority over where, when and by whom it is used.

The standardised cooperation agreement, developed mainly in the first funding phase with the legal experts of several partner institutions, has been signed by five institutions: GESIS, SOEP at DIW Berlin, IWH, FDZ Ruhr at RWI, and ifo EBDC. Alongside it, two technical hands-on KonsortSWD working papers are available: one on configuring a thin client into a secure workstation, and one documenting the remote-desktop system newly implemented at the SOEP, including its hardware, software and actual costs.

Remote access to SOEP data is already available through the partner network. While the administrative processes are still being streamlined, access is currently arranged individually — researchers interested in working with SOEP data from a partner location are welcome to contact us at rdcnet@diw.de.

Two products are the focus of the second funding phase. The first is a public website bringing together all the information researchers and RDCs need: which data are available where, how to gain access, and what it takes to become a cooperation partner. The second is RDCdesk, the booking platform at the heart of the network’s administration. Optimised for research data centres, it lets each RDC configure its workstations: which data are available, when, and under what conditions they can be accessed. Managing those workplaces, confirming or denying booking requests, and offering automated information can all be done from one interface. Its key feature is shared data products: one institution can offer its data at another’s workplace. Thus, when a booking is requested, both parties are notified and can independently accept or decline. This replaces today’s fragmented communication with a single, reliable process.

Beyond these products, we are focusing on bringing new partners into the RDCnet. As a first step, we are surveying universities in Germany to assess their interest in providing a GRWS and whether they are currently equipped to do so. Universities remain only lightly represented in Germany’s research data infrastructure. With the RDCnet, there is a great opportunity to bridge the gap and include these major research institutions as data-accessing partners.

Taken together, RDCnet focuses on the „Accessible” in FAIR data. By standardising the legal and administrative foundations of cooperation, the RDCnet makes Germany’s research data infrastructure more efficient and collaboration far easier to set up. More access points, lower costs and less effort ultimately benefit the researchers — and, with them, the excellent research that reliable data access makes possible.