Working towards frictionless, UK-wide data-driven research and innovation

Much of the data kept by public organisations such as government departments contain sensitive data about UK citizens and businesses. Since the Digital Economy Act 2017, progress has been made to enable accredited researchers to access these data to perform studies that are in the public benefit, with accredited researchers submitting proposals to a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) to gain access to data held by an organisation via the TRE. This approach ensures that sensitive data is available for leading-edge research while kept safe and secure. 

However researchers face challenges when they pursue research questions that require federated data access, where the required datasets are available in different TREs and must be combined before analysis. The Connect4 project, which is led by EPCC, identified the following two challenges: 

• A researcher cannot see these datasets and so must rely on data descriptions (metadata) to seek the datasets that will support their research. The available metadata for these datasets lack sufficient detail to assess whether a combination is feasible and if the combination will lead to a sensible analysis.
• The policies that govern access are specific between the data owners and the TRE. They are not designed for compatibility with other TREs and they do not consider federated data access by a single research study. 

Proposing solutions

Connect4 works to overcome these barriers, and there are three work packages involved to explore and develop solutions. 

The first work package produced a roadmap of the improvements and arrangements required to allow researchers to discover, apply for and analyse data held at UK national TREs through a single front door. The second work package has focused on how to deliver on the roadmap, looking at a shared service model for the TREs' data services which encompasses information governance, the standards, policies and procedures already in place, and areas for alignment. The project includes the Office for National Statistics and the Scottish National Safe Haven and it is coordinating with other national TREs at SAIL Databank and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency on what changes are needed in information governance to enable federation.

As part of the third work package, we attempted a trial federated data access use case across the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Scottish National Safe Haven. This raised a number of challenges and the Connect4 team proposed improvements that will underpin frictionless data federation across UK national TREs. 

Enhancing metadata

Work led by EPCC involves research that requires data access to the Scottish National Safe Haven to carry out metadata enhancement. EPCC has developed software that processes TRE data to create rich metadata, which will help researchers understand whether they could perform an analysis if they had access to that data. This helps researchers decide if the investment to combine datasets is worthwhile by determining beforehand if the necessary data are present. Researchers from across the UK have provided input through surveys to determine what enhancements to metadata we should develop. Project members are now close to enriching a pilot data catalogue with enhanced metadata. 

Next steps

Connect4 has set the scene for a UK-wide framework for secure, federated access to sensitive data. Follow-on actions are required in order to make this a reality for impactful UK research. A workshop we organised on cross-nation indexing of such data concluded that there is an appetite amongst leading UK TREs to resolve this issue. We will seek further funding to pursue this, and also to create the first service for UK-wide, federated, sensitive-data access and to productise and roll out the metadata enhancements across TREs.  

Connect 4 started in April 2024 and will conclude in December 2025. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), under the “Future data services: pilots to enhance data services for the future” programme (ES/Z502972/1). It is a multi-partner project led by EPCC with Research Data Scotland (RDS), the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Public Health Scotland and National Records of Scotland. 

EPCC Safe Haven Services (SHS) 

EPCC operates the EPCC Safe Haven Services (SHS), a secure infrastructure on which independent organisations can provide their own Safe Haven. The EPCC SHS operate under the guidance of the Five Safes framework. Our services offer a secure data sharing and analysis environment to process sensitive, including special category, data under the terms and conditions prescribed by the data providers.

Our customers develop their own information governance processes and use the EPCC SHS setting to manage approved researchers processing minimised data, for the purposes of public-benefit research and only allowing non-sensitive data to leave the Safe Haven. For example, as part of the EPCC SHS we provide the infrastructure and operational systems that underpin the Scottish National Safe Haven, which is controlled by the eDRIS team of Public Health Scotland. eDRIS controls data and user access and manages all research enquiries. 
Safe Haven Services at EPCC