DARE UK Next-Generation Trusted Research Environment Capabilities

Funding available to prototype the ‘next generation’ capabilities for federated trusted research environments (TREs) currently missing from the landscape.

DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) is a programme that aims to establish a safe and collaborative network of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) where approved researchers can efficiently access and analyse sensitive data to advance research for public benefit. By co-creating this network with relevant communities and the public, DARE UK aims to enhance research while maintaining the security and confidentiality of sensitive data.

DARE UK is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), with oversight from Health Data Research UK and Administrative Data Research UK.

This funding opportunity will support the conceptualisation, early testing and technical validation of new innovative capabilities and core service components of a federated TRE ecosystem identified through the DARE UK Phase 1 landscape reviews, the DARE UK Federated Architecture Blueprint and related work. Through early-stage innovation and piloting, it will contribute to the enhancement of infrastructure capabilities for sensitive data research in support of novel research and the scale of research endeavour.

The funders are seeking innovative applications that address challenges and needs in the TRE landscape beyond those already identified in the DARE UK Transformational Programme. This could include applications in the following areas:

• Automatic indexing and data linkage in federated TRE environments.
• Federated machine learning across TREs, including use of large-scale sensitive datasets (for example, medical images).
• Safe use of remote major compute facilities within sensitive data projects.
• Incorporation of large-scale reference datasets (for example, maps, geospatial images, climate data) into sensitive data projects.
• Semi-automation of software package security management within TREs and federated TRE environments.
• Strong security isolation of project environments to support greater flexibility in user software deployment inside TREs.
• Use of Privacy Enhancing Technologies in support of TRE services (for example, multi-party computation, homomorphic encryption, differential privacy).
• Use or enhancement of broadly adopted common data models for sensitive data research (for example, use of OMOP for health data).
• Use of synthetic data as a risk management approach for testing different analytical capabilities within TREs.

Applications are not limited to the topic areas above so long as the application both aligns with the DARE UK vision and offers technical, organisational or information governance solutions that are general or easily generalisable and scalable across the TRE ecosystem. Successful projects will be expected to use standards already adopted by the DARE UK programme, and to attend DARE UK events where relevant.

Successful projects will also be expected to engage, leverage and collaborate with other DARE UK Phase 2 activities, as relevant and appropriate to their work.

The project will be funded for 12 months from September 2025 to September 2026.