Confidentiality

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Confidentiality Policy for Applications, Peer Review Materials, and Awardee Reports Submitted to Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund

Indiana Code 5-14-3-1 contains the text of the Access to Public Records Act for the State of Indiana.

Indiana Code 5-14-3-4 lists a number of exceptions to the Access to Public Records Act. Subsection (a)(10) states that application information declared confidential by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation Board under Indiana Code 5-28-16 are excepted from pubic records disclosure requirements.

The Board of the 21st Century fund approved a confidentiality policy pursuant to I.C. 5-14-3-4(a)(10), which has been adopted and followed by fund staff since oversight of the 21st Century Fund was transferred to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. The policy provides that all information contained in a 21 Fund application, except for the abstract and title page, is treated as confidential information. Fund staff currently handles all applications for awards, peer reviews of all applications, and reports received from awardees as confidential information.

Confidential information is deemed to include all applications, peer reviews prepared by our review panelists and ad hoc reviewers, and awardee reports received by the 21st Century Fund. This information comes in many forms: trade secrets, information not yet publicly disclosed, patents applied for and dates of application, salary and benefits information for faculty/staff/students/employees, cost share commitments and support levels for projects, competitive information about focus areas for companies, grants applied for and levels of institutional support, etc.

Other information generated by the 21st Century Fund has been treated as public information, with much of this data available at our website.

The Entrepreneurship Committee of the Board of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation has ratified the existing confidentially policy relating to 21st Century fund application information, specifically that applications (excluding the abstract and title page), reviews of the applications, and individual reports are confidential information protected from public disclosure to the fullest extent possible under Indiana Code 5-14-3-4(a)(10).