Research Infrastructure for the Safe Analysis of Sensitive Data

Abstract

To use administrative and other new data sources for the scientific study of human beings and human behavior, analysts need to be able both to connect to these new data and to deploy new methods for linking and analyzing the data. These efforts are often hindered by legal, technical, and operational difficulties. In this article, I examine how new digital research infrastructures can be used to reduce such barriers. Experiences with data stewardship in other scientific domains shows that appropriate infrastructure can enable the efficient, secure, and collaborative integration of domain expertise, data, and analysis capabilities. I review the state of the art in these areas and argue for the use of cloud-hosted enclaves as a safe interaction point for analysts, data, and software, and as a means of automating and thus professionalizing data stewardship processes.