DARE UK Phase 1 Driver Projects

The Driver Projects played a leading role in informing the design of what will be a UK-wide federated network of trusted research environments (TREs) – highly secure digital environments that provide access to sensitive data for analysis by accredited researchers to support cross-domain data research for the public good. This could be research about education, health, the environment, and more, as well as how these different aspects of our lives interact with each other.

When sensitive data is made accessible for research, it is de-identified (all personally identifiable information is removed) and held in TREs, which have a series of strict security measures to prevent re-identification and protect against data misuse. This enables researchers to securely analyse the data as part of important projects in the public good.

Currently, different TREs across the UK follow different standards and processes, making it difficult for researchers to conduct analysis on multiple datasets held across different TREs. The five Driver Projects explored solutions to developing more standardised approaches to running and governing TREs so that data can be more easily analysed across them in a safe, secure and efficient way.

The funding was awarded as a result of an open call for proposals from October to December 2022, with all applications received assessed by an independent panel of experts. The projects ran for nine months, from February to October 2023, and their outputs were shared publicly via the DARE UK website in late 2023.

At the end of the delivery period, DARE UK assessed the activities and final outputs of the projects, including their Public Involvement and Engagement (PIE) efforts, and captured key insights and learning in the summary reports below:

• The DARE UK Driver Projects: Working with the public to promote advances in ‘big’ and ‘sensitive’ data research
• Public Involvement and Engagement in Sensitive Data Research: Lessons Learned from the DARE UK Sprint Exemplar Projects