Yorkshire and Humber SDE is part of the Federated North project – a research collaboration spanning Northern England. The project will accelerate the expansion of DataSHIELD – innovative open-source software that enables the secure analysis of NHS data whilst protecting patient confidentiality.
The Federated North collaboration also includes the Institute of Population Health at the University of Liverpool and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It has been funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
It will also draw upon additional specialist expertise from international partners including Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts; NFDI4Health, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke; Arjuna Technologies Ltd and EPIGENY.
Working together, project partners will expand and enhance DataSHIELD to address a significant challenge in modern health research.
This is how to use the UK’s vast health and social care data – resources from GP surgeries, hospitals and academic research studies – across the recently established SDEs in England, while maintaining patient privacy.
Dr Rebecca Wilson leads DataSHIELD, which enables researchers to analyse sensitive health data without physically moving, sharing or viewing it. She said: “Health data is one of the NHS’s most valuable assets for research, but we need to ensure it is used in a way that respects patient confidentiality and public trust.”
“This project will allow researchers to conduct powerful analyses across multiple regions without compromising data security or individual privacy.”
Dr Phil Waywell, Director of the Yorkshire and Humber SDE, said:
“DataSHIELD allows us to conduct analysis simultaneously across all sites without sharing or moving individual patient data.
“This opens up new opportunities for Secure Data Environments to collaborate more effectively, making cross-regional federated research faster and more efficient.
“As this project pilots the approach in the North of England, it has the potential to be scaled across the Secure Data Environment Network — transforming the way health research is conducted nationally.
Advancing health data research in Northern England
The NHS has established the Secure Data Environment network, a series of regional secure data hubs across England, forming a decentralised system to manage health data safely.
The Federated North initiative will focus on implementing and adapting DataSHIELD within this new infrastructure — specifically across hubs in the North of England.
Through this funding, the collaboration will:
- Adapt DataSHIELD to work seamlessly with NHS digital infrastructures and be compatible with international systems in Germany and the United States.
- Enhance software capabilities to deliver real-time, privacy-preserving results and ensure compatibility with other analytical tools.
- Embed cutting-edge privacy protections aligned with evolving UK data governance guidelines, supporting safe, transparent data use.
- Co-design with public and professional stakeholders, ensuring the technology reflects social values and promotes trust in health data research.
Global impact
The project initially focuses on Northern England including the North East, North West, and Yorkshire & Humber where there is a large range in health inequality, with consistently worse health outcomes than other regions in England.
It will enable data analysis across Northern England without transferring patient information, ensuring the characteristics of local populations are represented in cross regional analyses.
The work will also improve the reproducibility and transparency of health research, positioning the UK as leader in privacy-preserving, federated data analysis.
The grant is co-funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Department of Health and Social Care via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and was awarded through the MRC-NIHR Enhancing biomedical and health-related data and digital platform resources call.