8.2 User Roles

Access to the VRE is controlled by project-based and role-based permissions. The combination of Project and user role defines which data and resources a user can access in the VRE. The VRE Platform Administrator creates the first Project Administrator user account; this user becomes the first member of a Project. Thereafter, the Project Administrator can invite or remove members of their research team to their Project. Note that the roles below are independent of the GDPR roles "controller" (determines the purposes and means of processing personal data) and "processor" (processes personal data only on behalf of the controller).

An individual person may become a member of one or more Projects in the VRE upon invitation from the Project Administrator of each Project.

Member roles and functions available to Researchers are described in Table 1.

Table 1. Platform User Roles

Project Administrator

The Project Administrator is the Principal Investigator (or their delegate) who has overall responsibility under GDPR as the Data Controller for the Research Project. They are responsible for all Project data stored in the VRE. They have the authority to invite other research members to the Project and assign their member roles within their project. Project Administrators can access all data related to their project, can register pseudonymization pipelines, view activity logs for all Project Files and Members, manage Project settings and manage users for their Project. A project may have more than one individual person assigned to the role of Project Administrator. This ensures role redundancy in case of absence.

Project Collaborator

The Project Collaborator is a member of the Project whose primary role is data analyst. Members with this role can contribute, or upload, data to the Project, view the list of files they uploaded to the Project using the File Explorer and download the files they originally uploaded. Project Collaborators cannot browse or download data contributed by any other member of the Project in the VRE Green Room but can view and download all data in their Project that has been added to the VRE Core.

Project Contributor

The Project Contributor is a member of the Project whose primary role is to contribute data only. Members with this role can contribute, or upload, data to the Project Green Room, view the list of files they uploaded to the Project using the File Explorer, and download the files they originally uploaded. Project Contributors cannot browse or download data contributed by any other member of the Project and cannot view or access any data in the VRE Core.

Registered Platform Member

The Registered Platform Member has access to the public list of projects on the Project Landing page but is not a member of any Project. They must be invited by a Platform Administrator. Users with this role can view the list of public Projects but cannot access or upload data to any projects until they are invited to a project by a Project Administrator.

Platform Administrator

The Platform Administrator is a member of the VRE administrative team. The Platform Administrator maintains the Portal and creates Projects in the VRE upon request from a Principal Investigator (PI) and after all appropriate data protection authorizations and data sharing agreements have been secured. The Platform Administrator can perform other administrative functions to assist the Project Administrator with support issues related to their Project.

See Also: 

Adding a Project Member

Requesting a Project

Accessing the VRE