Modern digital research infrastructure brings together researchers, institutions, facilities and service providers across organisational and national boundaries. While this federation enables powerful collaboration and access to shared computing, data and digital services, it also creates significant security challenges. Protecting research data, services and infrastructure requires more than technical controls alone. It depends on trust, common practices and close cooperation between infrastructure providers and the scientific communities they serve. Threats, vulnerabilities and operational risks can affect multiple organisations simultaneously, making the sharing of knowledge, expertise and cyber threat intelligence essential for maintaining a secure and resilient research ecosystem.
Within IRIS, security is viewed as a shared responsibility. Infrastructure providers, service operators, security specialists and research communities work together to develop common approaches to risk management, incident response, identity and access management, and the secure operation of federated services. This collaboration helps ensure that security measures support scientific collaboration rather than becoming barriers to research. Recognising that many challenges are common across organisations, the community has developed policies, guidance and best practices designed specifically for federated digital research infrastructures. A key contribution has been the development and adoption of the WISE Security Policy Development Kit (SPDK), which provides a framework and set of policy templates that help research infrastructures establish consistent, interoperable and community-aligned security policies. By combining shared expertise, common standards and trusted collaboration, IRIS helps strengthen the security and resilience of the UK’s digital research infrastructure landscape.
IRIS Security Policies
IRIS Infrastructure Security Policy
IRIS Service Operations Security Policy
IRIS Community Security Policy
