Research Suite provides our researchers the products and services to organize IT and data effectively and securely. Think of state-of-the-art digital infrastructure, (re)use of data and the digital workplace of the researcher. Additionally, we offer active support for our researchers with tooling, best-practices and advice. For any questions about the services listed below, you can contact Research Suite through researchsuite@erasmusmc.nl.
Services
Storage
Research Suite offers low cost, scalable storage as a service designed especially for researchers. Thanks to the accessible service, our researchers can have access to storage easily and quickly. The storage environment is particularly suitable for storing large amounts of research data for internal use.
Compute
Research Suite offers low cost, scalable compute power as a service designed especially for researchers. Thanks to the accessible service, our researchers can have access to high power computing easily and quickly. The compute service is particularly suitable for analyzing and processing large quantities of research data for internal use.
Data Capture
The Data Capture Team is our knowledge center for data collection for research. And Castor is our preferred system for collecting data for research. Castor is ISO 27001 & ISO 9001 compliant. For more information on the ways Castor provides secure data capture tooling, we refer to their security statement. In case of very specific needs for data collection, we also have other applications available. The Data Capture Team is happy to advise our researchers which system is most suitable for their needs.
Research Registration and project management
PaNaMa is the research project management system that supports registration and administrative processes of human-related research at Erasmus MC. It facilitates our researchers by means of workflows and offers available templates at the right moment in the process. The workflows and templates guide researchers through the administrative and regulatory processes, ensuring that researchers take all necessary steps to comply with policies and legislation, such as the GDPR (Dutch: AVG). PaNaMa is ISO/IEC27001 certified.
Electronic Lab Notebook
Erasmus MC uses eLabJournal as an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN). This is a web-based application in which users can keep track of all experiments and easily share them with their research group. It is possible to store all kinds of data in the system, such as protocols, images and raw data. This allows our researchers to organize and retrieve their information and data in a structured way. ElabNext (the supplier of eLabJournal) is ISO/IEC 27001:2017 certified.
Digital Research Environment
Research is not bound to walls or borders. However, managing, processing and sharing research data must be done securely. In the workspaces of the Digital Research Environment (DRE) researchers have all their data and research tools at hand. For example, they have access to computing power for analyses. This service is set up primarily for Erasmus MC researchers. But collaboration with external researchers is of course possible. Within the DRE you can share data securely with other researchers worldwide. The DRE is GDPR compliant and has several security measures in place to ensure data integrity and information security. For more information on security of the DRE, please visit https://andrea-cloud.com/ and support.mydre.org.
Data Transfer Zone
Researchers often deal with receiving and sending (privacy-sensitive) data. In addition, research often deals with various parties working together, where everyone has their own way of transferring data. The Data Transfer Zone (DTZ) has been designed by Erasmus MC to provide a common way to easily and securely transfer research data. There is no limit to the amount of data that can be sent or received. This service is set up primarily for Erasmus MC researchers and enables them to collaborate with external researchers in a safe way.
Data Issuance
Research often requires specific data. Sometimes from multiple sources. For example, to search for patients with a particular condition, it is necessary to be able to query all data from a single point. Therefore, we have our Health Data Platform. The Health Data Platform (HDP) extracts data from source systems (e.g. HiX) within Erasmus MC and models these data to international standards before publication to a secure system (e.g. DRE or Castor). Our researchers can request data from this platform. The use of patient data is bound by laws and regulations, most notably GDPR. In order to ensure that all data usage complies with these regulations, Erasmus MC has defined eight criteria that a data request must meet. Our data stewards are happy to guide our researchers through this process.
Data Management Plan
Good data management is key in research. It is very important to think about all aspects of data management in a very early stage of the research project. Erasmus MC offers researchers a template and detailed instructions for writing a data management plan. Data management plans that follow this template are accepted by major funding agencies such as NWO, ZonMW and Health-Holland and can also be used in EU-projects. Our data stewards are happy to advise our researchers on the various aspects of data management.
Support
Erasmus MC offers support for researchers involved in projects with complex data streams. There are data stewards available to help our researchers set up the data streams and make sure all other supporting offices are involved, such as the legal, privacy, IP, or funding experts. In addition, we offer training courses and workshops in which our researchers learn to make optimal use of Research Suite’s products and services.
Collaboration
Health-RI
Erasmus MC is one of the regional nodes of the national initiative Health-RI. Health-RI aims to set up a national infrastructure to facilitate the reuse of health data for medical research. Research Suite coordinates the activities for Health-RI within Erasmus MC.
Convergence
Erasmus MC, Erasmus University and Delft University of Technology are joining forces to enable multidisciplinary research on urgent and complex societal challenges, such as climate change, sustainability, pressure on the healthcare system, urbanisation and digitalisation. Research Suite takes part in Convergence to help identify and overcome boundaries in the day-to-day practice of working together as researchers from different institutes.
