CLASS: Secure Research Environments

Webinar and Workshop Series:
Explore Cloud Research and Compliance

Join research leaders, CIOs, IT and security professionals for a community-driven, three-phase series designed to inform and empower your institution to plan and execute a comprehensive strategy for leveraging the cloud for secure research.

The Internet2 CLASS program, in collaboration with the Regulated Research Community of Practice and the CaRCC Research Cybersecurity Interest Group, is facilitating this series that helps you navigate secure research and compliance in the cloud.

Explore the Program

Moving Forward

This blog post is the second in a series that recaps what we’ve learned during the first phase of the Secure Research Environments program.

Blog 1: Lessons Learned From Phase 1 of the Secure Research Environments Series.

Read the Latest Blog

Special Offer

Special Offer for Full Series Participants: Institutions that participate in all sessions of a series phase will receive one hour of personalized consulting (up to a maximum of 3 hours) with experienced community members to help launch your secure research initiative.

Strategy Sessions: Program Leadership

For VPs of Research, CIOs, and Research Computing Directors.

Traditional approaches to research security are no longer adequate in today’s environment. Drawing on experience from universities and NSF-funded research facilities, this session helps you connect the dots between emerging federal requirements and institutional risks to research integrity, funding, and reputation.

Key Takeaways:
- Why research security risk ownership must extend beyond individual labs and departments
- How universities can evolve their governance structures, policies, and technical controls
- Overview of federal requirements, such as NSPM-33, NIST SP 800-171, and CMMC 2.0
Speaker:

Mike Corn, Executive Strategic Consultant for Vantage Technology Consulting Group
- Former Cybersecurity Advisor for Research Infrastructure at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Chief Information Security Officer at the University of California, San Diego
Date: Jan. 20, 2026
Time: 1-2 p.m. ET
Cost: Free

Please contact CLASS if you would like to review the recording and slides from this webinar.
This live session focuses on achieving organizational alignment. Hear guidance on designing, implementing, operating, and sustaining a secure cloud IT environment for research, including organizational strategy, structure, and governance.

Key Takeaways:
- Research revenue opportunities
- Regulatory environment landscape assessment
- Who needs to be involved — and why?
- How to organize your team to do the work
Speaker:

Bill Barnett, Chief Research Computing Officer at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
- Former Senior Director of Research Computing at Harvard Medical School
Date: Feb. 3, 2026
Time: 1-2 p.m. ET
Cost: Free

Please contact CLASS if you would like to review the recording and slides from this webinar.

Strategy Sessions: Service Leadership

For Directors of Research Computing, Research Compliance, and IT Security/Compliance professionals

This webinar session provides guidance on policy controls and key roles, as well as the cross-functional coordination required for a robust NIST SP 800-171 compliance program. The session addresses real-world technical implementation considerations and costs, as well as the decision between on-premises and cloud solutions.

Key Takeaways:
- Learn to efficiently meet regulatory requirements
- Why you need more than a FedRAMP Certified Cloud
- Learn about Affirming or Empowered Officials
- Get guidance on the number of environments you need to build to meet all requirements
Speakers:
- Mary Duarte Millsaps, Director of Research Compliance at North Carolina State University
  - Member and former chair of the Association of University Export Control Officers (AUECO)
- Jill Gemmill, Associate Vice President of Research Computing and Data at Clemson University
  - Vice Chair of the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computing (CASC); co-lead of the CASC working group that produced “Research Computing’s Response to NIST SP 800-171”
Date: Feb. 17, 2026
Time: 1-2:30 p.m. ET
Cost: Free

Please contact CLASS if you would like to review the recording and slides from this webinar.
Security and compliance are often viewed as barriers to research, but when aligned with the research mission, they can enhance both efficiency and competitiveness. This webinar demonstrates how cybersecurity can accelerate research while reducing institutional risk.

Key Takeaways:
- What cybersecurity and consulting services are needed?
- How you can build a portfolio of pre-secured technology solutions
- How do these solutions complement one another?
Speaker:
- Will Drake, CISO and Principal Security Analyst at the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research
  - Launched the SecureMyResearch service at the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research in 2019
Date: March 3, 2026
Time: 1-2 p.m. ET
Cost: Free

Please contact CLASS if you would like to review the recording and slides from this webinar.
Join us for a workshop that helps you build a core “tiger team” for the development and operations of your secure research environment. Designed for multiple participants from the same institution to attend together, we’ll work through practice exercises to stress test the identified groups and consider how these groups fit into the larger institutional context.

This workshop is limited to 40 participants (up to 6 per institution), so sign up early to secure your seat.

Key Takeaways:
- Tiger Team Roster: A list of 5-8 people to consult with on challenging research scenarios that don’t clearly fit the standard SRE model
- Full Stakeholder List: Complete identification of everyone who needs awareness or related communications about the SRE effort
Instructor:
- Jason Armbruster, CLASS Consultant for Internet2
  - Associate Deputy Director of ACCESS Support at the University of Colorado Boulder
Date: March 31, 2026
Time: 12-4 p.m. ET
Cost: $100 for CICP; $150 for Internet2 members; $200 for non-members

Register Today

Design Sessions: Technical Planning

For IT Operations, Research Computing, Security Operations, Networking, and IAM professionals.

This webinar reviews the most common implementation patterns for secure research in higher education, centered on a robust sandboxing strategy. We will deconstruct five distinct Secure Research Environment archetypes and analyze how each one manages isolation, compute, and data egress. By seeking the commonalities across these models, we will provide a roadmap for building an integrated institutional strategy that protects data without stifling discovery.

Key Takeaways:
- Understand how precise scoping reduces the “audit surface” for externally regulated environments (e.g., NIST 800-171, CMMC)
- Review a technical taxonomy of five distinct research environments
- Evaluate trade-offs to align with your campus infrastructure, staffing, and researcher needs
Speaker:
- Jason Armbruster, CLASS Consultant for Internet2
  - Associate Deputy Director of ACCESS Support at the University of Colorado Boulder
Date: April 7, 2026
Time: 1-2 p.m. ET
Cost: Free

Register Today
Join us as IT leaders from multiple institutions will pull back the curtain on their operational cloud enclaves. Get a high-level architectural review of implementations across various cloud providers, highlighting the unique design choices made by each school. Our panel of experts will share lessons learned from their deployment journeys, ranging from cost-governance to identity management.

Key Takeaways:
- Review the architecture of multiple real-world implementations
- Lessons learned from peers who are farther along in their journey
- Discover strategies for maintaining rigorous security standards without stifling research innovation
Speakers:
- Jason Armbruster, CLASS Consultant for Internet2
  - Associate Deputy Director of ACCESS Support at the University of Colorado Boulder
- + More TBA
Date: April 21, 2026
Time: 1-2 p.m. ET
Cost: Free

Register Today
Through this workshop, we will close the “translation gap” between technical implementation and auditor expectations. Through a unique Red Team/Blue Team simulation, you will move beyond checklists to experience the full lifecycle of a security control. You’ll learn to identify hidden gaps between your actual configurations and your written policies, practicing how to defend your implementation under the scrutiny of an audit.

Key Takeaways:
- Understand the complete lifecycle of security control implementation and review
- Experience the relationship between implementation decisions and documentation requirements
- Identify common gaps between what organizations document and what they implement
- Practice collaborative security control evaluation
- Gain familiarity with NIST 800-171 control implementation challenges in research environments
Speakers:
- Jason Armbruster, CLASS Consultant for Internet2
  - Associate Deputy Director of ACCESS Support at the University of Colorado Boulder
- Silas Korb, Cloud Engineer at the University of Colorado Boulder
Date: May 5, 2026
Time: 12-4 p.m. ET
Cost: Free for CICP subscribers (with a $100 no-show fee); $150 for Internet2 members; $200 for non-members

Are you a CICP subscriber? Contact class@internet2.edu to receive your discount code for this workshop.

Register Today
This workshop — the first of our cloud provider workshops — focuses on the AWS architecture patterns required to build a scalable, secure “sandbox” for sensitive workloads.

Join us to master the AWS design patterns needed to move beyond “one-off” fixes and build a defensible, grant-ready research environment.

Key Takeaways:
- Utilize AWS Artifact to discover relevant compliance artifacts
- Design a modular environment that doesn’t hinder research productivity
- Design a scalable sandboxing architecture for a secure research environment
- Understand why this architecture is important, even if only one lab has these needs
Speakers:
- AWS Solution Architects TBA
Date: May 12, 2026
Tiime: 1-3 p.m. ET
Cost: Free for CICP subscribers (with a $200 no-show fee); $300 for Internet2 members; $400 for non-members

Registration includes access to all of the May 12, May 26, June 2, and June 16 vendor workshops. You may attend one or all four. For CICP subscribers, no-show fees will not be applied if you attend at least one of these workshops.

Are you a CICP subscriber? Contact class@internet2.edu to receive your discount code for this workshop.

Register Today
Join us as we focus on the Microsoft Azure design patterns used to build a “Trusted Research Environment” that keeps sensitive data under institutional control.

Discover how to transform Azure into a compliant, grant-ready platform for your institution’s most sensitive research

Key Takeaways:
- Utilize Azure’s compliance artifacts and the Service Trust Portal
- Design a scalable sandboxing architecture for a secure research environment
- Understand why this architecture is important, even if only one lab has these needs
Speakers:
- Sven Aelterman, Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
- Ken Hoover, Microsoft Azure Solution Architect
Date: May 26, 2026
Time: 1-3 p.m. ET
Cost: Free for CICP subscribers (with a $200 no-show fee); $300 for Internet2 members; $400 for non-members

Registration includes access to all of the May 12, May 26, June 2, and June 16 vendor workshops. You may attend one or all four. For CICP subscribers, no-show fees will not be applied if you attend at least one of these workshops.

Are you a CICP subscriber? Contact class@internet2.edu to receive your discount code for this workshop.

Register Today
This workshop focuses on the Google Cloud (GCP) architecture patterns designed to create high-performance “Data Clean Rooms.” These are isolated environments that satisfy NIST and HIPAA requirements while providing researchers with modern, cloud-native tools.

Learn how to leverage Google Cloud to build a secure, scalable, and audit-ready home for your most sensitive research data.

Key Takeaways:
- Navigate the Google Cloud Compliance Reports Manager
- Design a scalable sandboxing architecture for a secure research environment
- Understand why this architecture is important, even if only one lab has these needs
Speakers:
- Google Cloud Industry Architects TBA
Date: June 2, 2026
Time: 1-3 p.m. ET
Cost: Free for CICP subscribers (with a $200 no-show fee); $300 for Internet2 members; $400 for non-members

Registration includes access to all of the May 12, May 26, June 2, and June 16 vendor workshops. You may attend one or all four. For CICP subscribers, no-show fees will not be applied if you attend at least one of these workshops.

Are you a CICP subscriber? Contact class@internet2.edu to receive your discount code for this workshop.

Register Today
The final workshop in our series features Kion, a leading multi-cloud management platform, to demonstrate how to maintain a consistent, secure architecture for sensitive workloads across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Key Takeaways:
- Identify and access compliance artifacts that document shared responsibility
- Design a scalable sandboxing architecture for a secure research environment
- Understand why this architecture is important, even if only one lab has these needs
Speakers:
- Kion Solution Architects TBA
Date: June 16, 2026
Time: 1-3 p.m. ET
Cost: Free for CICP subscribers (with a $200 no-show fee); $300 for Internet2 members; $400 for non-members

Registration includes access to all of the May 12, May 26, June 2, and June 16 vendor workshops. You may attend one or all four. For CICP subscribers, no-show fees will not be applied if you attend at least one of these workshops.

Are you a CICP subscriber? Contact class@internet2.edu to receive your discount code for this workshop.

Register Today
As we conclude the initial learning phase of our series on Secure Research Environments, we prepare to pivot toward a series of action-oriented webinars and workshops. This community-focused webinar serves as the critical transition point from exploring “what is possible” to defining “what is next.”

Speakers:
- Jason Armbruster, CLASS Consultant for Internet2
  - Associate Deputy Director of ACCESS Support at the University of Colorado Boulder
Date: June 23, 2026
Time: 1-2 p.m. ET
Cost: Free

Register Today

Technical Implementation

Deep-dive technical sessions on specific implementation topics

- Identity, Access, and Attestation
- Networking and Boundaries
- Configuration and Change Management
- Monitoring and Logging
- System Security Plans (SSPs)
Detailed schedule to be announced.

Have a question about the series? Contact CLASS

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