How We Work

Partnerships

The Charlotte Regional Data Trust (Data Trust) develops and nurtures long-term data sharing partnerships in the greater Charlotte-Mecklenburg region. By working to grow and maintain these relationships over time, we support an enduring data infrastructure that can provide information our community can use to ensure that everyone in our region thrives . Two board committees are tasked with ensuring that our work is ethical and leads to community benefit.

Our Data And Research Oversight Committee (DAROC) is built from our administrative data partnerships, with a representative from each data partner sitting on the committee alongside volunteers with subject matter and research expertise. DAROC reviews all requests to use administrative data and monitors data sharing policies and practice, making recommendations to the board and staff as needed to protect the data and ensure ethical use . 

Our Community Data Advisory Committee (CDAC) extends our partnerships to intentionally include those represented in the administrative data. CDAC is currently being developed by the board under the leadership of Dr. Melvin Herring and Jamaal Kinard. CDAC will provide an additional layer of oversight, ensuring that research questions are raised that are important to people represented in the data, and that research completed will be translated and shared with those represented in the data. 

Legal Agreements

In order for these partnerships and the Data Trust to work, we negotiate legal data sharing agreements that enable organizations to share individual-level administrative data and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer data with the Data Trust. 

Administrative Data. The Data Trust uses a suite of legal agreements to enable  individual-level data sharing on a regular basis:

  • Enterprise Memorandum of Understanding (EMOU): Documents the shared Data Trust mission, purpose, and  governance process. All administrative data partners sign a joinder to the EMOU.
  • Data Sharing Agreement (DSA):  Describes the terms of data sharing with each Data Partner and is signed by both the Data Trust and the Data Partner. DSAs may include additional negotiated language specific to the organization and partnership. For example, DSAs that involve education data may include more FERPA language and DSAs that involve health data may include more HIPAA language. 
  • Security Policy: Describes the Data Trust security and privacy agreements and procedures, including the incorporation of the latest data security advancements. 
  • Data Use License (DUL): Outlines the legal terms of data use by approved data recipients and researchers. It describes researcher roles and responsibilities including the appended approved data license request specifying objectives, methods, data security plan, and timeline. 
Review the Data Trust Governance Process Here

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer Data. The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute (Institute) has historically had informal data sharing agreements with the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and the Towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill, and Pineville. With the launch of our web portal, we are in the process of formalizing these data sharing agreements under the Charlotte Regional Data Trust.