Sensitive Data Guidance

The Sensitive Data Working Group was set up in December 2023, to sit within and report to the Open Research Operational Group. The aim of the cross-disciplinary Working Group was to work with key stakeholders to discuss and review areas that researchers at the University of Cambridge need to consider when working with personal and sensitive data to help them comply with University expectations for Academic Research involving personal data.

A finalised draft of the guidance was sent for review to the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) in March 2025. The Committee endorsed the guidance with respect to matters that relate to the University research ethics framework within the UREC remit.

The published guidance can be downloaded from Apollo: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.123877. This guidance will be reviewed and updated annually and as necessary. Summary information on our webpages on the topics covered in this guidance are listed below. For more detailed information on these topics, please refer to the full guidance available on Apollo.

• GDPR and Research Ethics
  • Data protection, ethics and integrity
• Informed Consent (in preparation)
• Data Safeguards
  • Data Safeguards
• Storage of personal/sensitive data
  • Storing and backing up your research data
  • Data Security
• How to publish or share personal/sensitive data
  • Publishing data
  • Secure and collaborative working
  • How to deposit your data into Apollo
  • If you cannot publish your data
• Working away from Cambridge
  • Storing and backing up your research data
  • Data Security
  • Secure and collaborative working
• Archiving/retention
  • Preserving and Archiving
• Responsibilities
  • Data Ownership

If you have any feedback about the guidance, please email info@data.cam.ac.uk.