Storing live data

Box is a platform for sharing and collaborating on content, including research data. It allows you to collaborate on large files with your colleagues and external individuals. Staff and students are automatically allocated 100GB of storage when they create Box account. Staff members and research students can automatically increase their storage limit to 300GB by completing the storage quota increase form.  Further space can be requested by completing the Box Support form. 

The Research Data Store (RDS) is the recommended service for processing large volumes of research data. PIs for projects with an active research grant or GL code are eligible for 2TB online storage. Additional storage is available at cost. Postdoctoral students and postgraduate research students can access the RDS if they have been granted delegated access to a project code. See Get Access for more details.  

One Drive for Business is the recommended storage solution for saving personal work files. Data is backed up, so you can restore previous versions of files, and files saved in your OneDrive will be automatically synced to the cloud so you can access your files wherever you are, When sharing, you can control the level of access, such as allowing others to view only, edit, or download the content. 

Files containing sensitive information should be encrypted before storing or sharing. 

From 23 March 2026, storage quotas will be capped at 200GB for Imperial research staff, post-docs and research students and 100 GB for undergraduates and taught post-graduates. You may be required to migrate some of your data to Box. See Imperial ICT's webpage Changes to personal file storage for further details. 

The High Performance Computing service provided by Imperial College is available for all College researchers. The standard service is free at the point of use. 

Post-docs, PhD and research postgraduate students should contact their group leader or supervisor who will be able to register you. 

The BDAU SE is an ISO 27001:2013 certified research environment for securely storing and analysing de-identified data and is compliant with NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit (EE133887-BDAU).  

The BDAU SE can be used for research projects involving the use of personal data which needs to be handled in a secure way to ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR, or if the data provider for a specific dataset, requires their data to be stored in a secure environment to meet a set of data security standards.  

Personally identifiable data (e.g. name, date of birth, IP address, etc) cannot be hosted in the BDAU SE. Therefore, data needs to be fully de-identified before it can be transferred to the BDAU SE. 

Additional information about data storage options for research materials is available on this web page: Saving My Files 

Many researchers keep copies of their research data on personal laptops, external hard drives, USB sticks and other portable storage devices. These can provide a useful way of transporting or backing up data but should not be relied upon as a primary method of storage. This is because:

• data stored on USBs or hard drives can easily become corrupted;
• personal laptops or hard drives are at risk of being lost or stolen;
• portable storage devices can break or become faulty with use.

We would therefore recommend that you only use portable storage as a secondary storage option in conjunction with Imperial storage provision and that regular checks are carried out to ensure that any data held on personal devices are still accessible.  

Securely encrypt any sensitive or confidential data that is being kept on a personal device. For information about encrypting personal devices please see the Imperial ICT webpage.

There are a number of commercial cloud storage services available including Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud and others. Many provide a certain amount of free space before charging for extra storage. Whilst these services can seem convenient there are a number of factors to consider before using them.

• There is no guarantee that a commercial service will not be withdrawn or terminated. For instance, your account may be closed without notice if the company feels their service has been misused or if they encounter financial difficulties.
• It may not be apparent where your data is being stored. Some research data, particularly personal or patient data, must be stored within the EU and this cannot be guaranteed with commercial cloud storage options. Therefore commercial cloud storage is not suitable for patient data or other personally identifiable information.
• Backups may occur infrequently; different companies have different policies regarding how often they back up data. Depending on the provider it may also be impossible to retrieve earlier versions of a document.
• It is not always clear who can view and access the data. For example, under certain commercial cloud storage companies’ terms of service employees may have the right to access or even use your data. This should be a concern for all researchers, but is particularly important to bear in mind when dealing with personal, sensitive, or commercially valuable data.

We strongly recommend using Imperial maintained services rather than commercial cloud providers for the storage of research data. Commercial cloud storage should not be used to store sensitive or confidential data. For advice on how to store and manage access to personal or sensitive data contact ICT Security.