UK Sensitive Data Research Infrastructure: A Landscape Review

Between November 2022 and June 2023, as part of Phase 1 of the DARE UK programme, the DARE UK Delivery Team conducted a programme of surveys, interviews and ad hoc consultations with organisations providing infrastructure and other services in support of research using sensitive data with a particular focus on trusted research environments (TREs). 

Overall, we found a lively but fragmented landscape of multiple services and data providers, exhibiting islands of excellence but lacking nationwide coherence across scientific disciplines. Changes in research patterns away from data distribution and towards data access via secure services are evident in the significant growth over the last two decades in the numbers of trusted, secure digital research environments – based on survey responses received. This growth in service numbers is accompanied by the growth and increasing maturity of a community of practice and a steady convergence of ideas and technology solutions around what makes a trusted research environment (TRE) fit for purpose. 

The review highlights four key conclusions around the current state of the infrastructure landscape fit for supporting research using sensitive data: 

1. The shift away from the data dissemination model towards the data access model gives rise to more infrastructures and more complex datasets. As such, the "enterprise architecture" for a future secure digital research infrastructure landscape must be distributed, it must be trustworthy, and it must be flexible enough to accommodate services of very different capabilities. The landscape is vibrant, with an increase in both the overall number and capability of sensitive data research infrastructures. However, it is difficult to navigate, especially across scientific disciplines where cross-domain, interdisciplinary research remains challenging. 
2. Interoperability will increasingly be critical. Encouraging and supporting the development of standards for inter-operation between digital research environment service providers, of which trusted research environment (TRE) providers are a key subclass, and data providers in a necessarily distributed landscape will underpin UK plc's national capability to address inter-sectional societal challenges at pace. 
3. Trustworthiness, especially within the infrastructure landscape, remains fundamental. Continuing to embrace trustworthiness and seizing the opportunity to build public-facing information systems which collect and surface research activities making use of public data from across the landscape. 
4. The challenge of delivering better interdisciplinary research using sensitive data is a global challenge. The UK is well-positioned to lead in this space. With several islands of excellence around the UK, the opportunity is ensuring the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is important to maintain a watching brief on global developments, particularly those in Europe, leading where possible and adopting where appropriate.

The landscape of UK digital infrastructure fit for the purpose of supporting research with sensitive data has grown steadily over the years and is poised, off the back of cloud-first technology approaches and the response to intersectional societal challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, for a period of evolution and significant growth. As it stands, the landscape is fragmented and lacking national coherence across traditional research silos – though, as proven through the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this national coherence is more than possible, the challenge is transforming this into business-as-usual rather than as an emergency response.