Standard contract regarding the access and use of microdata

 
 
What are the steps to get access to microdata through standard contract regarding the access and use of microdata?

First of all, we mention that in order to apply for access to microdata, your organisation must be recognized by us as a research entity - a university, a research institution or research department in public administration, central bank, national statistical institute, international organization etc.

In order to receive access to microdata, you must send us by email to datestat@insse.roor by post (National Institute of Statistics, 16, Libertatii Avenue, Bucharest), the following documents:

1. A formal request from the university/ research institution (with the letterhead of the university/research institution), which needs to contain the following information:
- Title of scientific research project/title of PhD thesis
- A description of the project/PhD thesis (objective, some details on the methodology to be followed, which variables will be used, what type of analysis is foreseen to be carried out with the data and an approximate description on the output is also required)
- the name of statistical survey for which you request access to microdata
- the required variables
- time series range
This formal request must be signed by duly designated representative of the entity and stamped.

2. Annexes of Guidelines for the assessment of research entities, research proposals and access facilities.
Annex must be filled by university/ scientific research institution:
- Annex 1 Application form for research entities
- Annex 2 Confidentiality undertaking and Terms of use of confidential data for scientific purposes
- Annex 3 Research proposal application form
- Annex 4 Individual confidentiality declaration
Each individual who will work with microdata must sign the individual confidentiality declaration (annex 4)

Useful Information for completing the annexes

3. Contract regarding the access and use of microdata – will be concluded between NSI and university / research institution. We will send you this contract after you send us the official request from point 1 and the Annexes from point 2. Until then you can consult the standard contract model Standard contract - Model

4. Declaration of the microdata beneficiary that he will destroy the microdata required and provided by the NIS after the project is completed. At termination or cancellation date of this contract, the principal researcher must send us a Declaration, on his own responsibility, by which he commits to destroy the original data received from National Institute of Statistics of Romania, as well as all confidential data derived from it. This declaration must be sent at the time of signing the contract.

How and when are microdata provided?
After the signing by both parties of the microdata access contract, at the term specified in point 4 of the contract, NIS will send to the data manager / principal researcher specified by the beneficiary, the set of microdata on CD / DVD support.

 
NIS Romania would like to stress that:
 
1. According to Law no. 226/2009 on the organization and functioning of official statistics in Romania, republished, chap. IX and X, access to microdata is granted only for research projects carried out on behalf of the organization accredited for scientific research, and exclusively for its staff, who sign a contract with NIS. Requests for changes in the contract should be made before the expiry of the contract, by adding an amendment to the contract;
 
2. The contractor must take all necessary legal, administrative, technical and or organizational measures, to ensure that the data are used only for the research purposes specified in the contract, that none of this data is distributed to a third party and that there will be no attempt to identify, by any means, any individual statistical unit. In particular, the data will not be linked to other data sets from any other source, without the prior, explicit, written consent of NIS Romania;
 
3. It is strictly forbidden to make copies of the microdata provided by NIS;
 
4. The beneficiary must comply with the conditions for safekeeping the microdata specified in the annexes to the contract (Terms of use);
 
5. Access to microdata shall be provided only to researchers in the accredited research entity named in the Research proposal application form. Each of them (the principal researcher and the individual researchers) must sign an individual confidentiality declaration.
 
6. The contractor is obliged to stop using the information provided by NIS Romania after termination or cancellation of the contract;
 
7.At termination or cancellation date of this contract, the contractor will destroy the original data received from National Institute of Statistics of Romania, as well as all the data derived therefrom, except for the aggregated and/or analyzed data as presented in the research results/reports. The principal researcher commits to destroy the above mentioned data, by sending to the NIS Romania, at the time of signing the contract, a written Declaration in this regard, on his own responsibility;
 
8. The contractor will send to NIS Romania a copy of all reports/results produced by using the data. These reports will be forwarded to the specialized Departments from NIS Romania that has the responsibility to administrate the data and other technical issues, as soon as they have been presented or published.