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Office of the Vice President for Research

  • Banner Image of a researcher in a laboratory entering data into a laptop computer. To the right of the photo are the words "Office of Research Security" above a University of South Carolina Office of Research logo.

Office of Research Security

The Office of Research Security empowers and supports research personnel through training, education, awareness and direct support to protect the integrity of discoveries and innovation, enable collaboration and open scientific discourse, and achieve compliance with United States government and sponsor agency requirements.

Research security at USC

USC values open collaboration, innovation and scientific discourse. To ensure that we can continue these vital activities while also protecting sensitive and restricted research data, the university has established the Office of Research Security, housed within the Office of the Vice President for Research and headed by USC’s Chief Research Security Officer, who is primarily responsible for implementing our research security program.

The Office of Research Security (ORS) works to ensure compliance with federal research security requirements, enhance security training and awareness for researchers, ensure proper controls and safeguarding, and minimize risk to the research enterprise.

 

Covered Individuals

At USC, we consider personnel who meet one or more of the following criteria to be covered individuals under the research security program:
  • University personnel, meaning faculty, staff, students, postdoctoral scholars or university affiliate researchers serving as principal investigator, co-principal investigator or key personnel on a federally funded research project (including subawards).
  • University personnel designated as covered individuals by a federal research agency.
  • University personnel supporting federal contracts/awards with access to regulated data (controlled unclassified information, HIPAA, genomic, etc.).
  • University personnel involved in export-controlled projects. Most USC research is not subject to export control regulations, which apply to research on specific technologies that could be used for military purposes and items listed on the United States munitions list.
  • University personnel working on a federal agency contract/award requiring Operations Security (OPSEC) training.

 

 

Learn more about research security at USC

 

 

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