What You Need to Know

Secure Data Commons (SDC) enables collaborative and controlled integration and analysis of research data at the moderate baseline security level. FedRAMP security impact level, modern, includes upholding security controls for personally identifiable information (PII) and confidential business information (CBI) data. SDC offers authorized and controlled access to individual datasets and its associated metadata. Additionally, SDC supports the following data transfers: real-time (streaming), batch (daily, weekly), and ad-hoc (occasional).

Considering the SDC for your project, data, or analysis needs?

Here's what you need to know.

Technical Requirements

SDC researchers are expected to have foundational analytical programming experience in R, Python, SQL, and GitLab, and familiarity with cloud services to access datasets within the SDC platform.

Security

Each participating data provider in the SDC defines the levels of access to SDC users. Based on the agreement with the data provider, the SDC team granularly grants access to approved users of the data.

Access to SDC Web Portal

Currently the SDC is available only to USDOT-approved projects. If you would like access, or would like to propose your research to be a part of the SDC community, please email sdc-support@dot.gov.

For more information on Secure Data Commons, please see SDC Capabilities (pdf).

Last updated November 2022

Secure Data Commons - Support

Training Materials

Series of training videos to get to know the SDC services and capabilities.

SDC 101 Overview

Secure Data Commons 101.pdf

SDC Personas Guide

Overview of the different personas involved in the SDC including the Project Owners, Data Stewards, Data Providers, and Data Analysts.

How to Request Access to Datasets in the SDC

Inform Secure Data Commons (SDC) users how to request access to specific datasets through the SDC Web Portal.

Getting Started with DBeaver

Overview of how SDC Researchers can get started with using DBeaver.

How to Approve Data Exports out of the SDC

Overview of how SDC Data Stewards can approve data exports out of the SDC.

How to Access and Launch Your Workstations

Overview of how to access your workstations within the SDC.

How to Approve Trusted User Requests

Overview of how to approve trusted user export requests.

How to Request Trusted User Status in the SDC

Overview of submit approval to be a Trusted Researcher within the SDC to support automated exports.

SDC Vocabulary Video Part 1

SDC Vocabulary Video to inform researchers on what the SDC is and what workstations are.

SDC Vocabulary Video Part 2

SDC Vocabulary Video to inform researchers on what types of datasets that exist on the SDC.

Demo Videos

SDC Researcher Demos

Recorded video of an interactive demo of research tools and Notification Service

SDC User Guides

Research Team User Guide

User Guide for Researchers including materials on open source collaboration using GitLab.

Data Provider User Guide

User Guide for Data Providers

For more videos and more information about the SDC please reach out to the SDC Support Desk.

Last updated January 2025

Secure Data Commons - Starting A Project

Starting a Project in the SDC for Project Owners

Managing and sharing transportation research data, securely, is now easier than ever. The USDOT Secure Data Commons (SDC) is an access-controlled, cloud-based data environment that enables users to conduct analyses and develop new tools around emerging sources of transportation data. The SDC stores transportation data made available to researchers to work with these datasets.

Cost of using the SDC

The SDC tracks project-related usage of the system and has a model to help estimate labor and cloud resource costs to support your research needs. SDC platform features that are broadly available to all participating projects, are also shared costs by all such projects.

Estimate the Cost for Your Project

Contact SDC Support to see how much your project might cost based on your need. Please email sdc-support@dot.gov.

The SDC is right for you if...

Depending on the requirements of the project, the table below can help you determine if SDC is suitable for your needs.

Questions	Yes	No
Does your project generate data that needs to be access-controlled ?	✅ SDC will store and analyze sensitive data with fine-grained access control. Access is authorized to users through a data use agreement with revocable access terms to protect the sensitivity of data.	Project-level data management may be secure enough.
Does your project require collaboration between DOT Analysts and Researchers in the transportation community using the same data and tools?	✅ SDC promotes team collaboration by enabling data analysis tools, custom toolsets, open code sharing, and dataset curation to data analysts and external data providers.	Data sharing and analysis for the project team, using the same tools may be sufficient.
Does the project generate or need to manage sensitive data?	✅ If the project manages only moderately sensitive data, then SDC is a good option. If data is not sensitive, the SDC is not required. Public data hubs may be a better option (like the ITS Data Hub)	The SDC may not a good option for managing extremely sensitive data
Does your project need to combine data from a diverse set of transportation data sources?	✅ SDC leverages cloud capabilities to share complex transportation datasets with the transportation research community to analyze problems or gain insights.	SDC will enables scalable data storage, data analysis and user access via cloud-based platforms

Starting a Project

The SDC admin team works with the project owner to introduce the data providers and analysts to the SDC and get your project up and running.

Each SDC project goes through a standard lifecycle that prepares them for success within the SDC.
See what this process may look like for your project.

What's Next?

As a project owner interested in joining the SDC, use the steps below to get started:

Reach Out to SDC Team. Contact SDC Support to get an introductory overview of the services and platform features that SDC provides. Email sdc-support@dot.gov .

Let's Meet! During the SDC 101 Overview meeting, come prepared to provide an overview of your research program objectives, goals, and any security concerns. You will gain an understanding of SDC's capabilities, dataset availability, and customer support services.

Way Forward. SDC team will provide a Cost Estimation to support your program needs and notional timelines. Steps to fund SDC supporting services will follow the Working Capital Fund process. SDC services are flexible to exercise options to provide dedicated capacity.

Last updated May 2024

Secure Data Commons - SDC Lifecycle

SDC Lifecycle

Each project in the USDOT Secure Data Commons (SDC) goes through a standard lifecycle of activities.

Prospective

SDC team works with Project Owners who have a clear objective and a set of data providers and/or data analysts to support your research project needs.

Planned

We work with you to understand the objective, timelines, data provider and data analyst needs.The SDC and project teams collaborate to define the high-level requirements for the project and assess the suitability of the platform.

Discovery

We collaborate with you to define the detailed requirements for your project including gathering dataset documentation to demoing data pipeline architecture.

Onboarding

SDC Team implements data ingestion and curation requirements. We provide access to workstations, training materials, and assistance for queries and data uploads to support cross-project collaboration.

Active

Project team utilizes the SDC platform to achieve research objectives, while we actively provide Support Desk service.

Export

We work with you to conclude active research work in the SDC platform and begin planning retirement. (No new data coming from data providers.)

Retire

SDC Team archives project data as per records retention schedule, removes team members, and works with Project Owner to conduct final closeout.

Last updated August 2021

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