Funding awarded for three national health data transformation projects
The South West SDE will play a leading role in three projects awarded funding through Health Data Research Service (HDRS), helping to shape how health data is accessed, connected and used for research across the UK.
HDRS has announced funding for 43 technical transformation projects designed to strengthen the foundations of the UK’s health data research ecosystem. The projects will explore new ways of connecting data held in Secure Data Environments (SDEs), improving information governance, enabling clinical research and unlocking access to advanced computing and artificial intelligence technologies.
The three projects led by the South West SDE are:
Integrating OpenSAFELY tools into the South West SDE
This project will assess what would be required to adopt OpenSAFELY’s data management and federated analytics capabilities within a regional secure data environment. The work will explore the feasibility of integrating proven tools to support secure and transparent health data research.
Enabling secure access to sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure
This project will develop the governance framework needed for a regional SDE to apply for access to national artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure. It will provide an opportunity to work with members of the public and experts to understand how national intelligence computing resource can be accessed safely within an SDE model.
Implementation of the UK diabetes core dataset
The third project, led by Dr John Dennis and Dr Katie Young at the University of Exeter builds on the previous Diabetes Driver project to implement the agreed UK diabetes core dataset within the North East and North Cumbria Secure Data Environment, producing open code and documentation that will establish a model for further adoption across the country.
Wessex and Kent, Medway and Sussex SDEs will act as observer sites to provide feedback and ensure usability across SDEs. Standardised datasets like this are essential for consistent, high-quality research, and to make it easier to compare findings across organisations and regions.
The Health Data Research Service has been established with a mission to bring together health data across the UK for research that can improve lives. Projects were selected for their strategic fit and potential to share learning, create reusable outputs, and develop approaches that can be adopted nationally.
The South West SDE’s involvement in these projects demonstrates its growing contribution to support the development of more effective health and care research that can benefit patients.
Henry Ireland, Programme Director at the South West SDE, said:
‘These projects reflect our commitment to collaborating nationally and developing practical solutions that enable secure, trusted and impactful use of health data for research. We look forward to working with partners across the HDRS network and sharing the learning and outputs that emerge from this work.’