# Standard Application Process The **Standard Application Process** is the single front door through which a researcher applies for access to confidential data held by the recognized federal statistical agencies. It was created by the [[Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act]] to replace a patchwork in which each agency had its own form, its own criteria and its own timeline. The portal now runs at **sap.nsf.gov**, hosted by the National Science Foundation and coordinated by the [[Interagency Council on Statistical Policy]]. It replaced **ResearchDataGov.org**, which **closed permanently on June 16, 2026**; citations pointing at the old address are dead. The critical structural fact is that **the portal does not decide anything.** It standardizes the application; each agency then applies its own statutory criteria to what arrives. At the [[Census Bureau]] an application faces a maximum **twelve-week** review comprising at least two subject-matter reviews, a Policy Coordination Office review, a disclosure-avoidance review and a data-availability review, and must demonstrate a **statistical purpose** — commercial, regulatory and enforcement uses are barred outright. Approval is followed, not accompanied, by [[Special Sworn Status]] processing. See [[Census Data Access Crosswalk]] · [[Federal Statistical Research Data Centers]] · [[Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act]] · [[Federal Statistical System Tree]]