With the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 14 April 2016, new rules have been established for the handling of personal data in the EU and partly beyond. With a transition period of 2 years, these rules took effect from 25th of May 2018. Compliance with these rules is being monitored by the individual EUcountries. Research projects very often use personal data or data that can be used to draw conclusions about individuals. This raises the question of how to deal with this new situation in research projects. Some of the requirements will be identified in this presentation. Possible approaches and the associated risks are identified and discussed. Finally, essential steps to be compliant with DSGVO in the context of own research projects, are recommended.