Access and DURA Support Questions

You should always check with your local institutional review board (IRB) to ensure compliance with local requirements for conduct of research. We have provided the following template language as a resource to use for local IRB applications.

“The Registered Tier and Controlled Tier data available on the Research Hub contains data from participants who have consented to be involved in the All of Us Research Program, including data from electronic health records (EHRs), surveys, and physical measurements. All data available to researchers has had direct identifiers removed and has been further modified to minimize re-identification risks. This includes removing all explicit identifiers in both EHRs and participant provided information, all free-text fields, geolocation data smaller than U.S. state level, living situations, race and ethnicity subcategories, active duty military status, cause of death, and diagnosis codes subject to public knowledge. Additionally, the following demographic fields are generalized: race and ethnicity, education, employment, and information regarding sex at birth, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Also, all dates are systematically shifted backwards by a random number between 1 and 365, and data from participants over the age of 89 are removed. The All of Us Research Program data will be accessed for research strictly using the Researcher Workbench (researchallofus.org). External data can be brought into this secure environment; however, researchers are restricted from importing any individually identifiable information and from row-level linkage of the external data. Data searches, cohort building, and analysis will solely take place on the Researcher Workbench, a secure cloud-based resource with statistical analysis software available for use with All of Us data. Researchers are granted access to the Researcher Workbench after their affiliated institution signs a Data Use and Registration Agreement, and they create an account, including setting up two-factor authentication, verify their identity using login.gov, complete the All of Us Responsible Conduct of Research Training, and sign a Data User Code of Conduct, which prohibits any re-identification of All of Us participants. For more information, please visit researchallofus.org.”

No. As noted in the All of Us Responsible Conduct of Research Training, the Researcher Workbench employs a data passport model, and registered researchers do not need IRB review for each research project.

Most researchers will not be conducting human subjects research with All of Us data for two reasons:

1. The research will not directly involve participants, only their data.
2. The data available in the Researcher Workbench has been carefully checked and altered to remove identifying information while preserving its scientific utility.

​We still encourage you to apply the ethical principles of research with human participants to your work. Read the letter confirming the All of Us Institutional Review Board’s regulatory opinion.

Institutional signing officials typically include directors of research, sponsored programs, contracting, or technology transfer.

If you are unsure of your institutional signing official, we recommend asking a supervisor or administrator at your institution to connect you with a higher-level administrator, who could facilitate a Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) on the institution’s behalf.

The Registered Institutions page lists the monthly user reporting contact for each institution with a signed Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA). This contact receives regular reports about the users within their institution who are currently registered for the All of Us Researcher Workbench.

If you have completed a Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) request form on behalf of your institution, the All of Us Researcher Workbench access team will update you regularly via email.

If you have a question about the state of your institution’s DURA access request, you can reach out to the access team at aoudurasupport@vumc.org.

The All of Us Researcher Workbench access team will email each researcher who submitted a Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) request form when the agreement has been signed. You will also receive registration instructions.

Timelines for Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) can vary. They may take anywhere between a few business days to several months to complete. Feel free to reach out to the All of Us Researcher Workbench access team at aoudurasupport@vumc.org with questions about the status of your DURA request.

You are welcome to explore our publicly available data located on the All of Us Research Hub. The Data Browser includes aggregated data contributed by All of Us participants. Researchers may find this useful for planning projects because it offers a sense of how many participants may have certain conditions or may have contributed certain types of data.

More detailed data are only available in the All of Us Researcher Workbench.

First, you will create an account. You will receive an email with further instructions after you have completed your researcher profile. As part of the registration process, you will be required to complete 2-step verification, verify your identity, acknowledge the Data User Code of Conduct, and complete the Responsible Conduct of Research Training.

If the Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) request is denied by your institutional signing official, the All of Us Researcher Workbench access team will let you know within two business days.

Depending on the institution, the Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) can take between a week and a year to complete.

Since this is such a wide range, we recommend regularly contacting your signing official to demonstrate interest in the All of Us Researcher Workbench. Feel free to reach out to the Researcher Workbench access team at aoudurasupport@vumc.org if you have already completed a request form and your institution has not yet signed the DURA.

Yes, international researchers can register. To register, your institution must first have a Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) in place with the All of Us Research Program. This agreement must be signed by an institutional signing official.

The DURA process can take several months for institutions to complete. After that, researchers affiliated with registered institutions can register and begin their research using All of Us data.

Yes, commercial researchers can register. To register, your institution must first have a Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) in place with the All of Us Research Program. This agreement must be signed by an institutional signing official.

The DURA process can take several months for institutions to complete. After that, researchers affiliated with registered institutions can register and begin their research using All of Us data.

After a Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) has been signed, you will provide the All of Us Researcher Workbench access team with a list of acceptable email domains, such as @vumc.org for Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

These email domains must be specific to your institution and cannot include generic email domains, such as @gmail.com. After the acceptable email domains are established, affiliated researchers will be able to register for the Researcher Workbench.

Yes, additional acceptable email domains can be added to your Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) at any time.

If you would like to add another acceptable email domain for your institutional DURA, please reach out to the All of Us Researcher Workbench access team at aoudurasupport@vumc.org.

Note: If the access team receives a request from a researcher who is affiliated with your institution but does not use an acceptable email domain, the access team will direct the researcher to contact their signing official to ask if their email domain can be approved.

After the Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) has been signed, you will be asked to complete a registration form in which you will provide the name for the contact at your institution that will receive a monthly researcher report that shows the researchers from your institution who have access to the Registered and/or Controlled Tiers (i.e., researchers who have completed all required registration steps).

This monthly researcher report includes the researchers’ names, email addresses, access tiers, and details of the workspaces they have created in the Researcher Workbench. The reviewer of the monthly researcher report will be able to review the list and request removal of researchers from the Researcher Workbench if needed.

After the Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) has been signed, your institution will have access to the Researcher Workbench within two business days. The researchers from your institution who requested access will receive an email notifying them that they can register.