Title: UKRI ISCF DIH Programme Phase 3– Innovation Gateway, Health Data Research Hubs, and UK Health Data Research Alliance
Funder: Medical Research Council

Abstract: The Digital Innovation Hub Programme aims to enable a UK-wide life sciences ecosystem that provides responsible and safe access to health data, technology and science, research and innovation services to ask and answer important health and care questions. It builds on many recent healthcare technological advances, including in digital health and genomics, and on broader developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The Programme integrates with and reinforces Health Data Research UK’s investment in health data science and talent development, to stimulate the use of health data to make lives longer and healthier. It encompasses three essential functions: A. Health Data Research Innovation Gateway – The major portion of this award, the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway will act as a common portal through which researchers and innovators in academia, industry and the NHS can search for and request access to UK health research data held by members of the Alliance and the Hubs in Trusted Research Environments to provide a safe location for data storage and access. The Gateway will support the use of data, facilitate interoperability, and provide analytical capability. It will take the form of a common web application providing the following functions: 1. The ability to search for available data 2. The facilitation of access requests to multiple data custodians 3. Integration with accredited Trusted Research Environments to provide secure access to linked datasets 4. A library of curated analytics tools and scripts 5. A dashboard to show usage and quality of datasets for research and innovation to provide transparency to data users, data custodians and the public 6. The Gateway will not store or hold health data. Data security is paramount and data will continue to be held by data custodians in Trusted Research Environments The Gateway will be designed to operate at a national and international scale, and to be scalable as the uses of health data increases. HDR UK works in partnership with NHSX and other NHS bodies to ensure that the Gateway aligns with related NHS endeavours, including the development of clear standards for the use of technology in the NHS. B. Health Data Research Hubs. The Hubs will be centres of expertise to get from data to insight and the location to collaborate and co-create. The Hubs are formal collaborations between NHS, academic organisations, patients, charities and industry. Each Hub will be set up to demonstrate and drive the utility of expert health data science, based on an area of expertise. This award will support development of the Hubs’ business models. C. UK Health Data Research Alliance –The Alliance will coordinate identification and adoption of standardised tools, techniques, conventions and technologies to drive greater use of healthcare data for research and innovation in a trustworthy way. The UK Health Data Research Alliance will unite expertise and act as a clearing house for best practice in the stewardship of the UK’s health data – including patient and administrative data from the NHS, genomic data and other molecular data – to enable faster, more efficient access for research at scale. This will speed up progress in science, medicine and healthcare at a pace never achieved before in the UK. This award will support onboarding of that data.


Research activity codes: 2.6 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (AETIOLOGY);3.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (PREVENTION);4.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (DETECTION);5.9 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (TREATMENT DEVELOPMENT)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE