SD Services for Research

Our SD (Sensitive Data) services for research are designed to support secure sensitive data management through web-user interfaces accessible from the user's own computer. SD services are comprised of five components that together help you manage sensitive data during all the phases of your research.

You can store and share encrypted sensitive data with SD Connect and create a private workspace to compute sensitive data with SD Desktop. At the end of your research, you can publish sensitive data under controlled access with SD Submit (pilot phase) or biomedical data with Federated EGA. SD Apply enables data controllers to manage data access permissions for reuse of published research data.

SD services support national requirements for sensitive data and comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Services define the data processor (CSC) and data controller responsibilities. You manage the access to your data during all the phases of research. These services are suitable for primary use of research data. Moreover, SD Desktop is a certified computing environment for secondary use of health and social data according to Finnish regulations (specifically, Findata regulations and the Act on Secondary Use of Social and Health Data). A restricted version of SD Desktop is provided for secondary use, subject to specific limitations compared to the standard SD Desktop.

In the following pages, you can find a general overview of the SD services and their future developments

 

Introduction to SD services for research (Finnish version)

 

Who can use SD services

SD services are suitable for managing sensitive data from any research field and for diverse purposes. The services (SD Connect, SD Desktop and SD Apply) are available free-of-charge to researchers and students affiliated with Finnish academic organizations, research institutes, and their international collaborators, in compliance with CSC's General terms of use and policies. Using CSC services requires you to register a CSC account. Access to the Federated EGA service requires a separate contract and agreements between CSC and the academic organization (or data controller).

Tailoring SD services to your needs

SD services can be used in various cases of processing sensitive data. Depending on your needs and the legal bases for data processing, you can combine the service components to create your own personalized and collaborative workspace. Below you can find examples of tailored use of SD services as well as links to the essential documentation.

Documentation and support

You can find the service descriptions in our service catalog:

Getting started with SD services

If you're just getting started with SD services, see how to become a user of CSC's services. You will need to create a CSC account and a CSC project before setting up SD Connect and SD Desktop. You can find FAQs, our user guide to SD services, and video tutorials by following the links below.

We provide direct support to users of SD services. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at servicedesk@csc.fi (subject: Sensitive Data).