In the second semester of 2023, Luciana Arjona, senior manager of the Center for Data and AI at Insper, Suelane Garcia, technical coordinator of the center and Data Protection Officer (DPO) of Insper, and André Filipe M. Batista, former technical coordinator of the institution and current CTO and Chief Information Officer of Insper, visited the facilities of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. They personally visited the Grampian Safe Haven (DaSH), one of the five trusted research environments in that country.

 

Almost a year later, two leaders from Aberdeen visited Insper in São Paulo: Katie Wilde and Sharon Gordon. They visited the facilities and participated in a productive agenda, including participation in the third edition of the Data Science Week.

 

Thus, consolidating even more a partnership has placed Insper on the path of receiving highly qualified external feedback on the actions of its data center, which, in April, completed two years of existence. The analysis followed the Standard Architecture for Trusted Research Environments (SATRE), a data governance assessment methodology for research used at the Scottish university.

 

“We have organized and secure processes. We were seeking validation and an external perspective on the process. And thus, we sought improvement opportunities at a time of accelerated center growth,” says Arjona. “This interaction allows us to deeply understand the experience of professionals who have been doing this work for a long time and in a pioneering way,” affirms Garcia.

 

“We were very well received. These were busy and very productive days,” says Katie Wilde, Director of Digital Research at the University of Aberdeen, who led the creation of DaSH. “Since 2012, we have been working with this data security system. We are responsible for promoting a secure health data environment, ensuring that research can develop most productively while preserving data integrity, and we are willing to share our experience with other reference centers.”

 

Sharon Gordon, the Scottish university's research coordinator, has been working to coordinate institutional interactions with Brazilian colleagues, connecting research groups. “The contact with Insper researchers has been very productive. The atmosphere is one of high engagement. We are impressed with the Brazilian team's commitment and speed in presenting results,” she says.

 

 

Partnership for consolidation

 

When researchers seek information from a data center, they usually follow a series of procedures. They present their credentials and those of their institution, describe the objectives of their study, and detail what information they will need and how it will be used.

 

Finally, they receive feedback that, as a rule, does not present details that could compromise the security of sensitive data. Names, for example, are hidden or replaced. Data tables are not always delivered in full—many times, specifying which rows or columns will be necessary is required. Depending on the sensitivity of the information, the academic may need to access it within secure rooms, where it is not possible to enter with bags and electronic devices nor leave with personal paper notes.

 

The process may seem complicated and long, but it benefits everyone involved. Institutions that provide the data contribute to society with the guarantee that handling will follow rigorous security procedures. Researchers, in turn, find it easier to seek funding, as rigor in data collection and usage has become a prerequisite.

 

Data storage centers are experiencing an era of broad expansion and consolidation. There are increasingly more data available and higher security demands. And it was precisely in this context that Insper sought experienced professionals, prepared to work with particularly sensitive health data, to validate its own value proposition—which includes the recent installation of a secure room.

 

Luciana Arjona, Suelane Fontes, Sharon Gordon, Katie Wilde, Rodrigo Soares, Cristine Pinto, André Filipe de Moraes Batista e Jucilene Lopes dos SantosLuciana Arjona, Suelane Fontes, Sharon Gordon, Katie Wilde, Rodrigo Soares, Cristine Pinto, André Filipe de Moraes Batista, and Jucilene Lopes dos Santos

 

Productive interaction

 

For Katie Wilde, a cultural challenge is involved in implementing contemporary data centers. “It is a cultural challenge to make researchers understand the demands of the data centers. There were also technical challenges necessary to create a secure environment. We must develop a security management system to create functional scenarios for everyone involved.”

 

Partnerships with other countries are productive for all parties involved. “We have implemented phenomenal partnerships in different countries, such as India and Australia. These are places with different realities. Scotland is much smaller than Brazil, for example. There are different challenges, and we have much to learn from them.”

 

The SATRE emerged in this context, she says. “It provides a reliable assessment standard for us and all our partners from different parts of the globe.” Sharon Gordon also sees the interaction with other nations as positive. “We have significant collaborations in different countries, including Brazil and Australia. We deal with Africa, with places experiencing extreme inequality.”

 

The interaction with Insper opened new channels of contact, she says. “We started to talk about how we could contribute to each other. We worked on creating a productive collaborative environment. We identified a series of common interests with Insper. It is exciting to come here and see the potential partnership potential. We are impressed with the degree of advancement of the Insper team with the center, which has been active for just over two years. They have progressed significantly in this time.”

 

 

Looking to the future

 

“The conversations we had were extremely important, and the content we generated tends to be perpetuated. We want to bring data management to people's daily lives, supporting research that has a direct impact on the ground,” says Luciana Arjona.

 

“We were very transparent by opening our processes and our documentation. From this interaction, we will receive a report detailing the university's view of our work,” says Suelane Garcia. “We are focused on continuous improvement, on adaptations in processes and policies, ensuring security and fairness, and also supporting the use of artificial intelligence.”

 




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