DARE UK Next-Gen Catalysts

DARE UK Next-Gen Catalysts are early-stage, exploratory projects developing prototypes of the next generation of capabilities needed to support future sensitive data research.

With £2.66 million in funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), DARE UK is supporting eight projects testing bold ideas that sit beyond the current programme of work and challenge existing assumptions about how Trusted Research Environments (TREs) operate.

The projects focus on experimentation and evidence-building rather than production-ready systems. Together, they explore emerging approaches such as the safe use of free-text and synthetic data, new models for federated analysis and software governance, advanced privacy-enhancing technologies, and secure access to expanded computing resources for AI-enabled research.

Public involvement and engagement is embedded across all projects, with patients, communities, and members of the public helping to shape governance approaches, validate new tools, and inform guidance on acceptable data use. This ensures that new capabilities are developed in ways that are trustworthy, ethically grounded, and aligned with public expectations.

Where feasible, insights and outputs from the Next-gen Catalysts may be explored further through TREvolution, supporting the transition of promising ideas into more mature standards, tools, and capabilities for the UK’s sensitive data research infrastructure.