About RRCoP Community 

December 2021 - August 2025

The Regulated Research Community of Practice was created from the NSF project #2409859 "CICI: UCSS: Building a Community of Practice for Supporting Regulated Research". It was an active NSF project from December 2021 - August 2025 under # 2201028 and #2409859. 

This project worked towards these primary objectives:

1. Build a Community - The Regulated Research Community of Practice (RRCoP) builds a network of people able to help each other in implementing an affordable but effective cybersecurity and compliance program at academic institutions. 

Resources Developed: Participation, HigherEdCUI Slack, Regulated Workshop Series, and Subscribe, Regulated Research Benchmark Study, Collaborating Communities, Partnerships

2. Build Resources - Establish a leadership training and development program accelerating availability of distributed university resources. 

Resources:  Higher Education specific Resources, Related Presentations, Tools and Templates, Purdue's End to End CUI Workflow and Deliverables #NSF 1840043

3. Advocate and Negotiate - Develop representation through strategic partnerships with industry and government entities.

Resources: Advocating and Influencing, Federal Sponsored Resources

4. Manage Change - The Department of Defense modified the DFARS clause to mandate that NIST 800-171 be followed for data classified and marked as CUI in 2017. The next evolution of this program, CMMC, has already undergone significant changes now called CMMC 2.0. Other agencies, for example, Department of Education, have indicated that they are considering following a similar path to safeguard data. 

Resource: Effective Cybersecurity for Researchers

5. Simplify Compliance - A collective and streamline approach to compliance lowers the barrier to entrance for expansion of supported regulations by individual institutions.

Resource: Compliance Frameworks, 

October 2024 - September 2029

October 2024 - September 2029 Brought RRCoP closer to Trusted CI as a formal partner. 

The objectives for this five years includes: 

1. Foster an Assessment-Ready Community

   • Adapt to evolving learning needs gathered through feedback

   • Generate resources such as training,  workshops, and webinars

   • Assess and measure institution compliance maturity

2. Build Alignment,  Awareness and Advocacy

   • Craft and nurture strategic relationships with aligned communities

   • Develop awareness materials to support institutional compliance

   • Deliver expert guidance to external advocacy partners

3. Cultivate RRCoP Advancement

   • Expand and support growth to new communities

   • Enhance community sustainability

   • Leverage partner expertise

Mission of the project

The daily news clearly shows the increasing threat to safety and privacy of data, personal as well as intellectual property. While the requirements such as DFARS 7012, HIPAA, and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) improve the consistency of data handling between agencies and contractors and grantees, it leaves academic institutions to figure out how to meet such requirements in a cost-effective way that fits the research and education mission of the institution. Most institutions, agencies, and companies act in isolation with one-off contract language to address data security and safeguarding concerns. Even though cybersecurity has a clear and uniform goal of protecting data, a onesize solution does not fit all academic institutions.

By supporting this community with development of a community strategic roadmap, regular discussions and workshops, and a repository of generalized and specific resources for handling regulated research programs RRCoP lowers the barrier to entry for institutions handling new regulations.