Early Adopters
SOCRATES: Scaling Output Checking, Release and Accreditation in Trusted Research Environments
Trusted Research Environments (TREs) provide secure access to sensitive data for research in the public interest, but the current manual checking of research outputs is often slow and expensive. SOCRATES will explore how semi-automation can make these processes more efficient while maintaining security and compliance.
The UK Data Service SecureLab is one of the longest-standing TREs in the UK, providing secure access to highly sensitive data since 2011. It supports hundreds of research projects every year, enabling approved researchers in the UK, and through selected partner locations in Europe, to generate insights for the public good. Currently, all researcher outputs are subject to rigorous manual privacy checks before they can be released.
SOCRATES will test new ways of introducing semi-automation into this process, piloting tools that can speed up disclosure checks and reduce the burden on specialist staff. The project will assess how these approaches can be scaled to meet growing demand, ensure that compliance with UK and international standards is upheld, and improve the researcher experience by making outputs available more quickly.
By building on the expertise of the UK Data Service in statistical disclosure control and governance, SOCRATES will demonstrate how automation can strengthen efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, and provide a pathway for wider adoption across the TRE landscape. This work will directly contribute to the TREvolution vision by helping TREs become more scalable, sustainable, and able to meet the needs of researchers while keeping sensitive data safe.
By the end of the project, SOCRATES will:
- Deliver evidence on how semi-automated output checking can be adopted to improve the efficiency of TRE workflows without compromising security or compliance.
- Evaluate the semi-automated research output checking tool developed through by TREvolution against the SATRE (Standardised Architecture for Trusted Research Environments) specification and existing accreditation requirements (such as the Digital Economy Act Accredited Processing Environment accreditation).
- Make recommendations for embedding these approaches into standard TRE processes, supporting the move from testing to business-as-usual.
- Uncover insights into the changes to governance and operational models required for wider adoption.
Project information
Lead organisation: UK Data Service
Project duration: 15 months
Funding provided: £313,441
Primary contact email: john.sanderson@essex.ac.uk
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