Specifications include, but are not limited to: a) Planning - As needed, assisting UMD with developing plans for sequestration of data and other potential evidence, including data and evidence drawn from scientific equipment, network-based data, electronic device-based data maintained by personnel affiliated with specific research and scientific activities on multiple platforms and operating systems, etc. Plans will be developed in conjunction with the appropriate UMD officials and staff, and include guidance for conducting a successful sequestration exercise by assembling an appropriate sequestration team, meeting security and storage needs, maintaining a chain of evidence, and other related matters to ensure appropriate execution of sequestration. It is critical that respondents have a keen understanding of the confidential, time-sensitive, and high-stakes nature of the work, communicating and operating reliably and with discretion, and providing assurances that ongoing research activities are not unduly interrupted. Respondents should have familiarity with academic research, broadly writ; with laboratory settings, including those that involve biohazardous materials; experience with investigations requested by or involving the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity (DHHS/ORI); and baseline knowledge of federal regulations governing scientific research and research misconduct, and research environments in which maintaining compliance is vitally important. b) Sequestration - Respondents should have the ability to conduct the sequestration of a broad and complex range of data and other evidence as planned, to store and manage gathered data and evidence, and to provide recommendations to aid in the evaluation of forensic research misconduct. Generally, sequestration activities involve the consensual release of credentials to access the device, but in rare cases, the supplier may have to gain access to a system without credentials...
