HEAL-Scot: Housing, Environment and Location Data Linkage in Federated TREs to Map Geospatial Inequalities

Where people live, work, and age plays a major role in shaping health outcomes. However, analysing these relationships at the population scale requires linking data from multiple sectors while maintaining strong privacy protections.

HEAL-Scot will build federated data pipelines connecting two Scottish Safe Havens — DataLoch in Edinburgh and the Health Informatics Centre in Dundee. The project will link health datasets with housing, environmental and geographic data using secure Trusted Research Environment infrastructure.

The work will test emerging standards and tools developed through DARE UK TREvolution, including DIRECTOR-MESH, K8TRE and SACRO. Alongside technical development, the project will conduct a research study, informed by the Marmot Principles, to analyse how housing, environmental, and economic factors shape health outcomes.

Public involvement will help shape governance frameworks for linking health and geospatial data. Engagement activities will explore privacy considerations and public expectations, helping ensure that new approaches are both trustworthy and socially acceptable.

By the end of the project, HEAL-Scot will:

• Develop federated pipelines for linking cross-sector data within the Scottish Safe Haven Network
• Demonstrate secure linkage of housing, environmental and health datasets
• Evaluate TREvolution tools within a multi-domain data context
• Produce a reusable blueprint for geospatial data linkage research
• Generate evidence on determinants of health caused by environmental and housing factors

Project information

Lead organisation: University of Edinburgh
Principal investigator: Kathy Harrison
Project duration: 12 months
Project partners: DataLoch, Health Informatics Centre
Funding provided: £479,932
Primary contact email: Kathy.Harrison@ed.ac.uk