WP2 – Personal Data Management in Student Research: A Digital Consent Management Platform
Project Summary
The project digitalises and modernises higher education administration in Latvia by developing interconnected shared solutions for all universities and colleges. It is implemented in two phases: in the first, solutions are developed and tested; in the second, all remaining higher education institutions (HEIs) join the system.
Key project benefits:
For students – more flexible, personalised studies with the option to choose courses from different universities, and greater mobility opportunities.
For universities – reduced administrative burden, modernised study processes, stronger international competitiveness, and a broader offer of lifelong learning and micro-credentials.
For employers – education better aligned with labour market needs, and access to accurate information about employee skills.
For society – more accessible and higher-quality higher education, reliable data for policymakers, and closer integration into the European Higher Education Area.
WP2 Objectives and Activities
The aim of this work package is to procure and implement a unified digital platform enabling HEIs to collect, process, and manage research participants’ personal data in a lawful and transparent manner, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In practice, this means that students, academic staff, and researchers will be able to manage informed consent processes digitally — tracking who has authorised the use of their data, by whom, and for what purposes — with a full audit trail. The platform will also include data collection tools: surveys, questionnaires, and clinically validated forms that can be created without any programming knowledge. Different user roles as researchers, data protection officers, data curators, and administrators will be assigned distinct access rights appropriate to their responsibilities.
Expected Outcome
This work package will ensure that all Latvian universities can conduct research involving personal data in a legally sound and transparent manner, without risk of breaching data protection requirements. Researchers will gain a convenient, unified tool for data collection and consent management. HEI data protection officers and institutional leadership will have oversight and control mechanisms covering all active research projects. Overall, the system will reduce legal risk, accelerate the launch of new research projects, and improve the quality and credibility of academic research.
