UNC consistently places in the ranks of top-tiered schools as an institution that strongly encourages and highly prioritizes research in multiple fields. In fact, in a 2011 report the Center for Measuring University Performance ranks UNC as the 16th-best research university in the country.
Research participants are voluntarily giving valuable and highly vulnerable information to researchers. The Office of Human Research Ethics works to enforce the important points of the Human Research Protection Program, which has the main goal of protecting the rights and welfare of human subjects. The privacy of these research subjects is an important right and continuing to protect this right must be an important priority if UNC wants to preserve its reputation as a top research institution.
As the power of scientific research continues to expand through the development of new technology, an equally negative effect becomes possible as exposure to this information becomes available in the form of potential security breaches. Information Technology Services works with researchers to develop a set of standards that must be met for different levels of susceptible information.
In order to prevent research information from getting in the wrong hands, UNC must continue implementing complex internet security procedures that exceed the skills of computer hackers. UNC should develop a standardized, concrete way to prevent security breaches. This would offer other research-intensive universities an example to replicate.
Holding research to the highest standards of privacy will ensure that research participants will not have to worry about having their information abused, and it will give UNC an advantage in terms of appealing to researchers in search of a place to carry out studies.
