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Research Data Agreements

  • PIs and Department Chairs are not authorized to sign data agreements regardless of type and risk on behalf of the University except for publicly available data.
  • Determine if a data agreement is needed. Review this guidance.

How to request a data agreement:

Funded Research and Research Agreements - Data agreements will be initiated by the office processing the agreement, no action is needed by the researcher.  

Unfunded Research & Projects that do not meet the federal definition of research - Data agreements can be requested by researchers in the WRAP Agreements Module.

  1. Select AGREEMENTS from the navigation bar at the top of the screen.
  2. Select CREATE AGREEMENT on the left side of the screen.
  3. Question #3 - Upload the Data Protection Certificate for human research or any document for non human research.
  4. Question #5 - Select Data Use Agreement.
  5. Be sure to answer the clinical data question (#5 on the DUA Smart Form page) correctly.  Refer to this guidance for assistance.  Refer to the left navigation menu to determine the Smart Form page you are on.

Additional information from WV CTSI regarding clinical data agreements.

Incoming Data 

Research data transferred into WVU from an external data source may require a data agreement. Please consider the following to avoid delays:

  • Documentation may be requested from the data source stating than an agreement is not required, please obtain this information before requesting a data agreement.
  • If external collaborators will be added to WVU systems to share the data, an agreement may be needed depending on the risk category of the data. 
  • Identifiable clinical data from any external source will be treated as high-risk (sensitive data by WVU) regardless of the data agreement requirements unless the data is de-identified by the source (this does not include coded or limited data sets at WVU). 
  • Data from the WVU Health System medical record systems used by University staff for research, does not require a data agreement. A master agreement exists with WVU to use the data for research.  Other clinical data from other systems may require permission from the Health System before it can be used for research.

Outgoing Data

Research data transferred to an external entity may require a data agreement.  

Please consider the following to avoid delays:

  • Refer to this guidance to determine if a Data Agreement is needed or if a review is needed to make the determination.
  • Federally funded data deposited into a third-party repository at the end of an award or contract will require a WVU data agreement or an agreement by the repository.
  • If WVU staff will be added as collaborators to external systems to share data, the external entity may require any agreement, if an agreement is not required, WVU may request supporting documentation.

Sharing Data/Collaboration

A data agreement may be needed when adding external collaborators to access research data. Refer to this guidance for more information.