Getting Started with the SRE

When signing into the SRE, it's necessary for SOM researchers to use the umaryland.edu suffix instead of som.umaryland.edu or ihv.umaryland.edu.  For example, if your regular account is jsmith@som.umaryland.edu, it will be jsmith@umaryland.edu.  (Note: The @umaryland.edu credential is not an email address and cannot be used for sending or receiving email.  It is only for logging in to the SRE.)

Once you've accessed the Windows App or https://windows.cloud.microsoft/:

• Click on the Account Manager icon in the upper right-hand corner 
• Select Sign in with a different account
• Enter your umaryland.edu credentials
  • e.g. jsmith@umaryland.edu instead of jsmith@som.umaryland.edu 

For more information related to School of Medicine users in the SRE please visit: The School of Medicine's Secure Research Environment Webpage.

Access to the SRE is typically granted to individuals listed on an IRB protocol for a related research project.  If you need to add someone to your team, and your SRE-based project involves an IRB protocol, the new team member must first be added to the protocol. Afterward, contact the UMMS Research Informatics Core (RIC) team to have the additional team member added. To add new team members for SRE REDCap access, please contact the REDCap admins at redcap@umaryland.edu.

All users of the SRE must have an active UMID. External affiliates must be sponsored within the UMB Community System

User sessions will be auto logged off after 3 hours of inactivity.  If you have any questions or concerns, please email sre-support@umaryland.edu.

• The researcher signs into the SRE using the Windows App, Remote Desktop or the Windows web client.

• Once inside the SRE, researchers can utilize tools such as REDCap, SAS, Excel, Python, R Studio, and others. They can also access authorized data through the designated Ingress Folder.

• To remove data from the SRE, it must be transferred to the Egress folder, after which it is automatically sent to the data steward for approval.

Inside the SRE - Your desktop will have 2 folders labeled: 

• "<project ID> Ingress"  
• "<project ID> Egress"

These folders act as your data's landing zone and gateway out of the environment, respectively. 

The ingress folder is available to all team members and those added to the IRB protocol.  The entire team can work out of the ingress folder

Outside the SRE - You will use a dedicated Microsoft Teams team channel for your project. From the channels file tab, you can upload data to be ingressed, or download reviewed and approved egressed data. 

• External data, whether from Epic or another source, must be requested and approved by a data steward. The data steward oversees the security of the data and manages its movement into and out of the SRE.

• After approval, the data steward team delivers data to the project’s Ingress folder.

• If/When researchers need to extract data from the SRE, it is placed in the Egress folder and automatically sent to the data steward for approval.

• After approval, the data steward team delivers data to the project’s Ingress folder.

Additional notes about the Data:

• EPIC data is sourced from UMMS and the Research Informatics Core – the group within the ICTR that administers the UMMS-controlled research data (RIC) is always the data steward. 
• If data other than EPIC data need to be used, a data steward needs to be selected to be responsible for that data.
• You are able to copy and paste text from your local computer into the SRE. However, please note that you can only copy and paste text. The feature does not work for images, rich text formats or files.  Additionally, you cannot copy and paste out of the SRE.  

The SRE Data Mover Tool helps approved SRE users move files into the Secure Research Environment (SRE). In some approved cases, it can also be used to move files out of the SRE.

The tool is intended for files that do not contain protected health information (PHI) or personally identifiable information (PII). To support safe file movement, uploaded files are scanned before they are made available in the SRE.

Move files into the SRE

SRE users can upload files into the SRE using the Data Mover Tool.

From outside the SRE, open the Data Mover Tool at https://outside-datamover.umaryland.edu/.

Sign in with your SRE-enabled account and upload the file you want to move. When processing is complete, sign in to the SRE and download the file from https://inside-datamover.umaryland.edu/. File processing may take up to 10 minutes before the file is available.

Move files out of the SRE

Because the SRE may contain sensitive research data, moving files out of the SRE is more restricted. At this time, only Principal Investigators (PIs) and Data Stewards may request access to move files out of the SRE.

To request access, complete the request form. After you submit the form, the SRE IT team will contact you to discuss your request, your intended use, and how the tool works.

Important: Do not use the Data Mover Tool to move files that contain PHI, PII, or other restricted information unless you have received specific approval and guidance from the SRE IT team.

Request Data Mover Egress Access

 We're always here to help! 

• SRE REDCap questions: redcap@umaryland.edu
• SRE UMMS data questions: eda-research@umm.edu
• SRE IT and general questions: sre-support@umaryland.edu

To learn more about REDCap, please visit the REDCap page. For help with REDCap, please contact redcap@umaryland.edu.  

Contact eda-research@umm.edu for support relating to EPIC/UMMS data or data transfers.