The South West SDE is a ‘data when needed’ service, which means we can bring together novel, unique and bespoke datasets and linkages from across the region.

We do not host large volumes of data which may never be used for research. Instead, we have overarching ethical and information governance approval to work with NHS health and care organisations in the South West to make data available for researchers in a safe and secure way.

The South West SDE has engagement from NHS partners from across the whole of the South West region, and we can work with researchers and data controllers to help identify the data you need.

Datasets made available through the SW SDE, as well as other data specifications from other organisations, can be viewed on a national catalogue available through HDR UK, the Health Data Research Gateway.

We work with NHS health and care services that span the full health and care pathway across the South West, including primary care cohorts, extensive secondary care data such as routinely collected hospital data, pathology, imaging, mental health data, genomics data, and condition‑specific datasets as well as data from the VCSE (voluntary, community and social enterprise) sector.

We can onboard new data controllers for a specific project and can work with you to establish the required contracting and information governance infrastructure to bring data into the environment.

We also offer a ‘bring your own data’ service, and will work with your existing governance to make your data available on our platform.

If you wish to access health and care data within the South West SDE please complete an enquiry form to let us know your data requirements.

If you know what data you require, please complete an enquiry form. For more general questions and enquiries please email us or complete our contact form.

Public involvement is embedded throughout the South West SDE. Digital Critical Friends are members of the public who are trained and active in governance, South West SDE management, funding panels and data‑access review.

They help keep the public’s perspective at the heart of our decision making and are core members of our Data Access Committee.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) requires researchers requesting access to data to provide evidence that their project has involved patient or public consultation. This information is included in the data access request form which is reviewed by the data access committee as part of our approvals process.

Public involvement ensures research is relevant and meaningful to those it aims to serve.

The NHS is a public service open to everyone, and all research needs to account for potential inequities and inequalities in access to and use of NHS services.

Within the South West region are some of the most deprived areas in the country, with many people living in rural and coastal areas, resulting in significant challenges in health and social care provision.

Access to regional data is essential for helping us to overcome these challenges. The available data includes routinely collected data about patient age, gender, ethnicity and location.

The ability to link data sets creates a powerful tool to enable researchers to identify and address health inequalities.

The South West SDE works with NHS health and care providers across the South West. Dependent on your project, the South West SDE enables access to pseudonymised, routinely collected data from NHS, VCSE (voluntary, community and social enterprise) organisations, private healthcare providers and local government organisations.

The South West SDE adheres to the Five Safes Framework. Data is processed including pseudonymisation and data standardisation (which may include OMOP standardisation).

Yes. We offer a bring your own data service – please contact us to discuss your requirements and to receive a quote.

Anonymised data has had all personal information removed so that people are no longer identifiable. It is irreversible and the data can no longer be linked back to an individual.

This process can limit the usefulness of the data for researchers. Pseudonymisation involves replacing personal identifiers (such as names, NHS numbers, addresses) in the data sets we hold with pseudonyms (e.g. codes or tokens).

Keys for linking pseudonyms back to actual patients are also created. These keys are stored separately and securely in the SDE. They are never shared with researchers and even our own team cannot access them without permission.

Pseudonymising data retains the analytical power of the data without revealing a patient’s real world identity. Pseudonymised data is still personal data and is therefore covered by data protection law.

Anonymised and pseudonymised are both legally defined terms. The term de-identified is often used to refer to pseudonymised data. There is a helpful video explainer here.

A national data catalogue is available through HDR UK, the Health Data Research Gateway. If you want to develop a new data asset from a data controller in the South West, we can work with you to identify the data you want and develop a data specification. If it is a novel asset, we will work with you to assess the completeness and quality of that asset.

The South West SDE can be used to access health and care data for the following types of research:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithm development: testing, training, and validation
• Clinical trials: feasibility, and recruitment
• Evaluation of interventions and implementation: safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness
• Translational research: academic discovery and implementation of discovery into practice
• Epidemiological studies: large cohorts for population health research
• Health systems research: modelling and evaluation of systems or processes, including operational and applied research

If your project falls outside of these categories, please contact us to discuss your specific project. Research projects using the South West SDE must demonstrate a benefit to the public.

Information on the research that is being carried can be viewed in our Data Use Register.

We use the Databricks platform. This supports:

• R model scripts up to v4.4.2
• Python scripts (PIP/Maven libraries access may be restricted – contact us first)
• SQL Scripts including ability to run Insert/Update/Delete/Merge on Lakehouse files via Delta Lake technology
• Lakehouse Table support via Unity Catalog
• Jupyter Notebook support in the Databricks Notebook format supporting mixing and matching of code in the same notebook with Shell Scripting, Python, R and SQL

This list is not exhaustive – we can add other tools as needed. Please get in touch for us to scope this into your project. We also offer the option to bring your own tooling and bring your own code.

The hardware available is listed below. The cost of a project will depend on usage, which will be bespoke for each project.

VM Size Options
Azure SKU	CPU	RAM (GB)	GPU	Suggested Use
Standard_B2s	2	4 GB	–	Text Editing
Standard_D2s_v5	2	8 GB	–	Standard Use
Standard_D4s_v5	4	16 GB	–	Enhanced Use
Standard_D8s_v5	8	32 GB	–	High Memory
Standard_E8as_v4	8	64 GB	–	Large Memory
Standard_D16s_v5	16	64 GB	–	Large Compute
Standard_NC6s_v3	6	112 GB	1×16 GB	GPU (Light)
Standard_NC12s_v3	12	224 GB	2×32 GB	GPU (Heavy)
Standard_NC4as_T4_v3	4	28 GB	1×16 GB (T4)	GPU (Light)

South West SDE data is safeguarded using the UK Data Service Five Safes Framework.

All analysis happens within the SDE. The data cannot be downloaded, and it does not leave the SDE. Once a project is complete, access to the data is removed. All research outputs are checked to ensure they cannot be used to identify subjects.

Yes. The cost of accessing and using the South West SDE varies depending on the type of data required and the services provided, and each project using the SDE will have a bespoke costing plan.

Pricing within the South West SDE follows national costing guidelines and adheres to the NHS England five commercial principles (developed for the Data for R&D programme):

1. Costs of access should not be prohibitive.
2. The NHS will always charge a fee for accessing health data.
3. The cost of access should depend on how the data is being used.
4. On top of access costs, the NHS intends to share in the value created by its data.
5. The NHS need to retain flexibility to change the exact value sharing options.

There is a consistent approach to pricing across the SDE Network, both for data access and for additional services. This approach supports sustainability of the network by recovering project costs while aligning with NHS value-sharing principles.

No two projects are the same and every project is priced based on its specific requirements and complexity. Pricing reflects direct costs, a contribution to fixed costs and contribution towards ongoing service investment. There is flexibility to ensure pricing fairly represents the value of access to NHS data, according to the nature and scope of each project.

Costs cover services such as management, storage and compute, data analysis, clinical support, project support, software licences, data provision, engineering, and curation. They span the full project lifecycle—from scoping and approvals to data processing, secure workspace access, analysis tools, and safe output of results.

After an initial enquiry, the South West SDE team works with researchers to define requirements and provide a cost quote. Following submission of an initial enquiry, researchers will work with the SDE team to establish requirements and provide a quote to the research team.

The data on the SDE can be accessed for NHS, academic, charity and commercial purposes by approved analysts.

Every project undergoes a strict approvals process. The research must be for public benefit and meet the definition set out in the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care.

Users must belong to a registered organisation that has been checked by the SDE network. Individual users will also be required to be registered, and verified and vouched for by the organisation that they work for. Users are expected to have a minimum level of training, as outlined by the Data Access Agreement.

We may approve access to data by researchers from selected countries outside the UK. We require other organisations to demonstrate robust data security and information governance measures, which are consistent with the data security and confidentiality obligations outlined by UK data protection law, and to follow our registration and approval processes.

All data will remain within the South West SDE within England and any approved overseas access is to view the data where it resides.

Please complete our enquiry form.

Please complete an enquiry form as soon as possible before the funder’s deadline so that we can discuss your requirements and provide a quote in a form suitable for inclusion in the funding application.

Please allow at least four weeks from submitting an enquiry to receiving a quote. This will depend on the complexity of your request; for simple requests, a quote can be processed more quickly.

Once a quote has been finalised and funding has been confirmed, we will guide you through completing a formal data access request form for review by the Data Access Committee.

If you would like to talk to us about research development support please get in touch.

When an enquiry is submitted to the South West SDE, the South West SDE team will work with you to understand the scope, timelines and partners (research institute, commercial, local government etc) of the proposed South West SDE project, and a quote will be issued.

Once funding is confirmed, we will ask you to complete a Data Access Request Form (DARF). This will be assessed by our Data Access Committee (DAC). Following DAC approval the project will be presented to the South West SDE Leadership Board for final system-level approval by the regional Joint Data Controllers.

The time taken for approval to be granted will vary depending on the complexity of each request. The SDE team will work with you to complete this as soon as possible. Projects can be approved for submission to the data access committee within 4-6 weeks.

Details of how to register as a user of the South West SDE can be found at: Registration process – NHS England Digital.

Once individuals and organisations have passed registration checks, they are considered suitable to approach any of the regional SDEs and make a data access request for the specific data they need for their research project.

Being registered at national SDE Network level does not guarantee access to specific data. All data access requests are processed by the SDE providing that data. As part of their process, SDEs may ask for more detailed information about the individual, the organisation or the proposed project and carry out additional checks before granting access to data.

The Data Access Committee (DAC) is made up of subject experts and members of the public. They assess requests, including the benefit to the public, strategic importance of the project and South West SDE capacity to deliver within the desired timeframes.

If a project is approved by the DAC, Data Controllers make the final decision of whether to share their data on a project-specific basis at the South West SDE Leadership Board.

A planned standard statement is under development.  We will make this available once it has been agreed and approved.

Please notify the South West SDE of all outputs arising from use of data or analysis platform within 30 days of publication.