Security & Compliance

Your research and its accompanying data are an important asset that should be responsibly secured throughout your research process according to the appropriate policies and agreements. As part of this, compliance with federal guidelines and regulations such as HIPAA privacy and security, select agent program, and export control program are critical duties.

Another aspect of compliance is meeting the public access requirements of any funding agencies or publishers. Many now require sharing the publications, data, and code underlying your sponsored or published research finding. Sharing your outputs responsibly and meeting these requirements in a timely manner are important. (learn more on the Publishing Research Artifacts page).

Security

The Office of Cybersecurity offers assistance such as risk assessments, HIPAA security and compliant storage, and information on Controlled Unclassified Information and other regulatory data categories.

The Export Control Office works with researchers and administrative staff to ensure compliance with the U.S. Export Control laws and regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and Foreign Asset Control Regulations (FACR).

The Select Agents Team can assist you with questions regarding regulation and responsibilities with select agents and toxins.

The Office of Legal Affairs can assist you with a variety of needs. The Research and Intellectual Property team can assist with material transfer agreements, technology transfer, trademark ownership and licensing, FDA compliance, export control and more.

Compliance

The Office of Compliance aids with compliance for laws, regulations and policies such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA Privacy). For information on who to contact to in your School or College for help with HIPAA compliance, please see their HIPAA Security and Privacy Coordinators page.

The Human Research Protection Program (HRPP), which includes UW-Madison IRBs, provides oversight for all research activities involving human participants at the University. Assistance includes training, policies, guidance, and the three IRBs (Minimal Risk, Health Sciences, and Educational and Behavioral Sciences).

• ARROW is UW-Madison’s online workflow system to review and track applications for research oversight pertaining to: human and animal subjects, stem cell research and biological safety.
• CITI Human Subjects Protection Training Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative
  • If your research involves human subjects, you will need to make sure that your Human Subjects Protections (HSP) training is up-to-date. The training and certification program that UW-Madison uses is CITI, which offers basic UW Biomedical and Social & Behavioral Courses, as well as supplemental modules.

Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) assists with proposal development, finding funding, oversight of projects, guidance and policy on compliance, monitoring of financial activities of sponsored programs and more.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) assists with the disclosure and licensing of inventions, which is a requirement per university policy.

• They also have a number of initiatives aimed at assisting with commercialization, sustaining startups, or connecting to biotech and pharma partners – learn more on the Outreach page.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (VCRGE) oversees UW-Madison research expenditures, administers cross-campus research and service centers, and maintains oversight of the Graduate School. Their page offers assistance with finding funding, the Research Cores program and directory, compliance, sponsored programs, and much more.

Public Access Compliance

Learn more about sharing your research outputs in compliance with public access requirements on the Publishing Research Artifacts page.

Sharing Data

MINDS@UW is the University of Wisconsin’s open access institutional repository for scholarly outputs including datasets, pre-prints, theses, technical reports, conference proceedings, or other outputs. MINDS@UW can make data publicly available while preserving it at a persistent, citable URL. DOIs are available if needed for well-curated and described datasets deposited in MINDS@UW.

Research Data Services (RDS) is a free resource for anyone on the UW-Madison campus that provides consultations, best practice information, and education and training on research data management and sharing. They help make your data citable, open, and publicly accessible.

Manuscripts

Public Access Service (PAS) is a UW-Madison service that can submit your manuscript to your funding agency on your behalf to comply with your agency’s public access guidelines for publications.