What Is FDSA (Federated and Distributed data Sharing Appliance)?
The FDSA (Federated and Distributed data Sharing Appliance) is a tool developed by the AD Data Initiative that lets research institutions share Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD) datasets within one collaborative research environment. It is one part of the AD Data Initiative’s product suite, built to reduce data siloing in ADRD research.
What Problem Does FDSA Solve?
Many institutions hold ADRD datasets that could meaningfully advance research if made available to the broader scientific community, but regulatory requirements, data governance policies, and technical constraints might not permit data transfer or migration . FDSA gives data contributors a way to make their datasets discoverable and accessible (if permissioned) by outside researchers while within a secure environment of the data contributor.
What Are the Main Benefits of Using FDSA?
FDSA gives data contributors a way to share ADRD datasets with the global research community while retaining full governance over their own data sources; nothing is copied out of the contributor's environment. Access is controlled at a granular level, with permissions set by organization, user, or dataset, and enhanced data privacy built in as a core design feature rather than an afterthought. Contributors also get a streamlined system for reviewing incoming data access requests and managing remote queries, so oversight does not require constant manual intervention. For researchers, these same controls translate into faster, more reliable access to datasets that would otherwise stay locked behind institutional or regulatory barriers, widening the pool of ADRD data available for analysis through AD Workbench.
How Does FDSA Work?
FDSA is a dockerized container deployed as a connector within a data contributor's own environment. Once installed, the plug in lets the contributor publish dataset metadata to the AD Workbench catalog, where researchers can discover and analyze it. Researchers can then request access and, once approved, use AD Workbench's Query Builder to run remote analyses; the underlying dataset never leaves the contributor's infrastructure. This is why FDSA is described as a federated and distributed model, rather than a centralized data repository.
Who Uses FDSA?
FDSA serves two groups within the ADRD research community, data contributors and researchers. Data contributors are organizations that hold ADRD datasets and want to make them available for research while retaining hosting and access control. Researchers discover, request, and analyze those datasets through AD Workbench. See full details on FDSA setup and access for both groups.
How Does FDSA Keep Shared Data Secure?
Security is a governance requirement built into FDSA's design, not an add-on. The system relies on encryption, authentication mechanisms, and access controls to protect datasets while they are queried remotely. Contributors retain fine-grained control over which organizations or users can access which datasets, and under what conditions, so enhanced data privacy remains a fundamental feature of every FDSA deployment rather than a configuration researchers have to request.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is FDSA the same as AD Workbench?
No. AD Workbench is the interoperability layer of the AD Data Initiative technical suite and its flagship product offering. FDSA is a component of its product suite, specifically built to enable federated access to remote datasets.
Who can use FDSA?
FDSA is used by two groups: data contributors, who deploy it to publish datasets for discovery, and researchers, who use AD Workbench to find and query those datasets.
Does FDSA cost anything?
FDSA is available at no cost for qualified researchers.
Where can I learn how to install or access FDSA?
Full setup, architecture, and access details for both data contributors and researchers are available in the FDSA user guides. For more information, contact the support team at fdsa.support@alzheimersdata.org.