Secure data environment SANE now available for analysis of sensitive datasets

SANE (Secure ANalysis Environment) is now available for research projects requiring the usage of sensitive data from various fields. The GDPR-compliant solution provides a secure environment for researchers while the data owner remains in control. This opens up new research possibilities.

Data provider remains in control

SANE addresses the challenge of data owners hesitating to share sensitive datasets with researchers due to concerns about losing control over the data. With SANE, data providers remain in full control of their data, as stipulated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This makes new kinds of research possible, opening up datasets of non-academic parties such as governments, heritage institutions, the Chamber of Commerce, or Funda. SANE comes in two variants; Tinker SANE and Blind SANE providing two ways of working with and analysing sensitive data.

"As the demand was already overwhelming during the pilot phase we anticipate an expansion of research projects across various fields."
Annette Langedijk, Research Partnership Lead at SURF

Secure environment

SANE runs on the ISO 27001-certified SURF Research Cloud platform and was thoroughly tested with an independent penetration test. The secure environment includes pre-approved analysis software, such as RStudio and Jupyter Notebooks, providing a secure gateway for researchers to access sensitive data. The data provider always verifies the output before the results can be exported to the researchers’ computer. SANE follows the Five Safes principles and allows data providers to remain in full control of their data, as stipulated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

How to use SANE

The platform is currently accessible for use by Dutch research and educational institutions, with ad-hoc inclusion of organisations outside this scope. 

For more information about SANE and how to gain access, please visit the

SANE project page.

Partners

SANE is a four-year collaborative project between ODISSEI (national research infrastructure for social sciences), CLARIAH (distributed research infrastructure for humanities and social sciences), and SURF. SANE is funded by the Platform Digital Infrastructure Social Sciences & Humanities (PDI-SSH).