Kate O’Sullivan

Kate O’Sullivan is an Associate Director at the Yorkshire & Humber SDE and the Head of Secure Data Services at the University of Sheffield. At the University of Sheffield, she is responsible for the delivery of the University’s Secure Data Services platform as well as the Data Connect service, which supports researcher access to routinely-collected health data for public benefit research.

Katherine has successfully managed on-prem and cloud SDEs and supported research innovation, including iCAIRD, the Health Foundation, PIONEER and CUREd+. She was a Co-Investigator on the DARE UK Phase 1 projects Semi-Automated Risk Assessment (SARA) and Semi-Automated Checking of Research Outputs (SACRO), and is a co-lead of the Information Governance Interest Group, and SDC-REBOOT and SATRE Governance working groups.

At the regional level, Katherine is a member of Technical Design and Data Authority Group at the Yorkshire & Humber SDE, where she works on technical specifications and applies best data management practices within the region. Katherine provides technical expertise for data-related decisions and ensures compliance with data standards and security requirements.

At the national level, she participates in the NHS England SDE Tech & Data Authority Working Group, helping to align regional practices with national SDE Network strategy and contributing to broader technical decision-making that affects SDE implementation across England.