As research data becomes increasingly complex and regulated, UC Berkeley’s Secure Research Data and Computing (SRDC) Platform and service have become an essential part of the campus research ecosystem. Made possible by funding from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the Division of Undergraduate Education, and Berkeley IT, SRDC is developed and maintained by Research IT (Christopher et al., 2022). SRDC provides a secure, high-performance environment for researchers working with sensitive or protected data, classified as “P4” by campus.
SRDC reflects Berkeley’s ongoing effort to balance innovation with responsibility—enabling cutting-edge research while maintaining the highest standards of privacy, security, and compliance. It’s also a story of listening closely to researchers, identifying emerging needs, and building infrastructure that not only safeguards data but also empowers discovery.
For members of the Research Data Management (RDM) Program - a partnership between Research IT and the UC Berkeley Library - SRDC’s story began with a steady rise in familiar questions. Researchers were increasingly asking how to securely store and analyze sensitive data, especially genomic and human-subject data. “[Before SRDC] there wasn’t a clear place on campus that could meet those requirements,” Erin Foster, Service Lead of the RDM Program recalls.
Before SRDC existed, faculty and staff often had to patch together their own solutions—storing data locally or relying on systems not built for high-security research. Through one-on-one consultations, the RDM Program noticed a pattern: across disciplines, researchers were working with data that carried legal, ethical, or privacy obligations. A campus-wide secure computing environment wasn’t just helpful anymore; it was becoming critical.
“SRDC gave us something we’d long been missing,” Erin says. “A central campus solution that we could confidently point people to—one that fulfills their data security needs while allowing them to do the work they came here to do.”
Today, the RDM Program and SRDC work in close partnership. When researchers come to the RDM Program, consultations begin by mapping out their project—what data they collect, where it’s stored, who has access, and which compliance requirements apply. The RDM Program team guides them through every stage of the data lifecycle, from planning and collection, to analysis, to sharing and preservation. When a project involves protected or regulated data, the RDM Program connects researchers to SRDC to ensure they have both the right infrastructure and the right support.
That collaboration has made it easier for researchers to move from idea to implementation while staying compliant with institutional and federal standards. For Noah Baker, Secure Computing & Machine Learning Specialist, that impact is visible daily. He notes that “SRDC has enabled research that simply wasn’t possible at Berkeley before. There wasn’t any centralized secure compute platform for people who needed to work with highly sensitive datasets. Now we have a solution that allows that work to happen safely—and at scale.”
Researchers from the School of Public Health, biological sciences, and molecular biology are among SRDC’s most frequent users, especially those working at the intersection of identifiable health records, survey data, and genomic analysis. Faculty in business, education, and social sciences are also turning to SRDC for projects involving personally identifiable information, financial data, or restricted survey results. The range of research has expanded dramatically. “For many groups,” Noah says, “SRDC made their work feasible for the first time.”
Operating in a secure environment often requires rethinking workflows. Because internet access is restricted, researchers can’t freely install software or pull external data as they would on a standard system. Noah and the rest of the SRDC team step in to bridge that gap. “Many of our users are experts in their fields but not necessarily in system administration,” Noah explains. “We help them transition their workflows—setting up conda environments, managing software installations, and learning how to operate in a secure, offline system.”
Each onboarding begins with a conversation about goals and technical setup. The SRDC team identifies which parts of a workflow must be modified and how to make those changes without disrupting research. “We work with researchers to find the skeleton of their workflow—the parts that are absolutely essential—and then adapt those steps for SRDC’s environment,” Noah says.
Over the years, these collaborations have built a rich, shared knowledge base. Noah maintains what he calls living documentation—a continually updated guide that grows with each project. “Every time we work through a challenge, we document it,” he says. “That way, the next researcher who runs into something similar already has a roadmap.” Today, that documentation exceeds eighty pages and continues to evolve alongside the platform itself.
Beyond the technology, what truly sets SRDC apart is its personal and collaborative approach. Each research group receives individualized support, ensuring every project—no matter how complex—has a dedicated partner. “Our one-on-one sessions are dynamic,” Noah says. “Sometimes it’s helping someone learn the Linux shell; other times it’s designing a pipeline that can handle terabytes of genomic data. The goal is to make sure every researcher feels confident in the environment.”
That human element has transformed SRDC from a secure system into a trusted space for experimentation, learning, and community. Researchers gain not only access to a protected platform but also a team that understands how to make that platform work for their science.
Looking ahead, both Erin and Noah see SRDC as an increasingly central part of Berkeley’s research landscape. The need for secure computing is expanding as agencies tighten requirements for handling sensitive information and as more fields—from medicine to marketing—generate data that could identify individuals. “We’re seeing data that used to be considered “de-identified” research data now being reclassified as “identifiable” because of the ability to re-identify using new technologies and methods,” Erin notes. “SRDC ensures Berkeley can keep pace with those changes and still offer a solution for researchers.”
Other UC campuses, including Davis and UCSF, have reached out to learn from Berkeley’s approach to secure research computing at scale. Within Berkeley, SRDC continues to grow through initiatives such as an upcoming faculty storage pilot, which will offer researchers no-cost storage, including on the SRDC platform. Erin sees this momentum as proof of SRDC’s value: “It’s exciting to see SRDC becoming a standard part of how the university supports research. It’s not just about meeting compliance—it’s about enabling the kind of research that changes lives.”
In just five years, SRDC has evolved from an idea into an indispensable service that empowers discovery across disciplines. This kind of platform and service exemplifies how the university can pair innovation with integrity thus ensuring that, as the need to protect and secure research data grows, it can be done securely and ethically while still allowing for world-class research.