Commonwealth Data Trust

Benefits of the CDT

• The CDT is a safe, secure, and legally compliant information sharing environment that establishes consistent requirements for trust members through a standardized data sharing agreement process.

• The data trust provides a scalable alternative to multiple “point-to-point” sharing between agencies.

• The trust promotes trust among its members through common rules for data security, privacy, and confidentiality.

• The trust reduces technical costs by onboarding to a single environment using standard National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) protocols.

• The CDT will ensure and support data discovery and analytics for agencies and organizations across the Commonwealth of Virginia (COV).

• Data Trust members get access to Dataversity .

Frequently Asked Questions

• Question: What is the purpose of the Commonwealth Data Trust Portal?
  • Answer: The Commonwealth Data Trust Portal enables a more secure, streamlined, and automated process to shorten the fulfillment time involved for Commonwealth Data Trust agreements.

• Question: What is the Commonwealth Data Trust Portal used for?
  • Answer:  The Portal will be used by eligible users to join the Commonwealth Data Trust, create new Member/User Agreements, view all existing agreements, and verify the status of new agreements under review. 

• Question: What is the difference between a Member Agreement and a User Agreement?
  • Answer:  
    • Member Agreement – is the relationship between agencies and commonwealth organizations which provide the data and ODGA as custodial of the Commonwealth Data Trust.  Executive Branch Agency, State Organization, and Locality end-users would complete this form to join the Commonwealth Data Trust.
    • User Agreement – documents the relationship between Commonwealth Data Trust Members when seeking and then providing specific data. Agency, State Organization, and locality end users would complete this form to request access to another agency’s dataset(s). 

• Question: Who is eligible for access to the Commonwealth Data Trust Portal?
  • Answer: Members of Executive Branch Agencies, State Organizations and localities across the Commonwealth of Virginia can submit a request for site access and permissions.

• Question: How can I get access and create an account for the Commonwealth Data Trust Portal?
  • Answer: Contact ODGA for access to the Commonwealth Data Trust Portal at odga@odga.virginia.gov. User access requires authorization, a username, a password, two factor authentication using OKTA, and an understanding of the agreements.  

• Question: If I already have an OKTA account, do I still need to submit a request for access to login to the Commonwealth Data Trust Portal?  
  • Answer: Yes. You will still need to request access through odga@odga.virginia.gov. Your OKTA account still needs to be added to the portal in order for your credentials to be recognized. 

• Question: Are there any costs associated with creating an account and using the Commonwealth Data Trust Portal?
  • Answer:  No cost is involved. It is free to become a member of the Commonwealth Data Trust.

• Question: What is the e-signature process when submitting a Data Trust request for review?  
  • Answer:  The approval and signature process are supported through Box. When a requester receives an email notification, they should open the Signing Log and scroll to the very bottom of the document to view the required signatures.