Research Data Management

There are a variety of services offered by UCL ISD that help with storing and managing data. These services have automatic backup to protect against data loss and a recovery service to retrieve accidently deleted files, so they are a safer choice than personal storage devices or cloud storage accounts. Personal storage providers should be particularly avoided when working with sensitive data as the data may not be kept under the security standards required by GDPR or the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

Your data is precious, so look after it properly!

Everyone at UCL has access to basic file storage, but you can request an account if you need specialist support for large data volumes, high performance computing, or for secure storage of data according to legal requirements.

• S Drive: An S Drive is designed for sharing storage with others for group work. You can be given access to existing shared drives, or you can request one if needed.
  • GroupFolders Shared (S:) Drive Information
• SharePoint: Best option for collaboration. This service allows easy sharing of documents with others, both within and outside of UCL. Documents stored here can be edited live by multiple people at once.
  • SharePoint
• OneDrive for Business: Best option for individual work and smaller projects. Offering similar functionality as SharePoint but you are the sole owner of the files in your OneDrive.
  • OneDrive for Business
• Research Data Storage Service: Designed for storage of large scale data used in active research projects. Supports high speed file transfer and easy integration with high performance computing. Requires approval from a supervisor to create an account, 1 TB is free but after that storage must be paid for to support the infrastructure. Best for data intensive projects.
  • Research Data Storage Service Information
• Data Safe Haven: A highly secure storage service, if you are handling personal data for a research project. Requires approval and completion of training to use. Complies with UK data protection laws. Best solution if your research project uses data that can identify individuals, or other sensitive data and you need a high level of security.
  • Data Safe Haven Information
• Jill Dando Research Laboratory: Similar to the Data Safe Haven, this facility offers specialised high security IT facilities for researchers working with extremely sensitive data. Look into this service if you have very specific data security requirements.
  • JDI Research Laboratory

We are always here to help. Need anything else from us just send us an email lib-researchsupport@ucl.ac.uk