Competitive Advantage

Last Updated: April 28, 2021 10:26:51 AM PDT

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Our program creates a competitive advantage for faculty.

As federal agencies add increasingly advanced security requirements to grants and contracts, researchers who are able to demonstrate compliance with these requirements during the proposal phase have a competitive advantage over their peers.

For example, the resources and services available within the SDSC Sherlock environment already fully meet the standard for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), and by the end of calendar year 2021 will be CMMC level 3 certified. Research projects that use Sherlock services should detail this within proposals. Templated language for inclusion with proposals is available. Please contact us for assistance in crafting appropriate language or a security plan. Email cui@ucsd.edu. 

Attacks on research projects, in particular when data is lost or stolen, are often reportable to sponsoring agencies. These attacks threaten data reproducibility, integrity, and the availability of research instrumentation. Agencies and partner organizations are now asking for more detailed security plans in proposals and data use or sharing agreements.