Trusted Research Environment (TRE) - the wider data landscape
A brief overview of how the HIC TRE fits into the regional and national network of secure data management
Where we fit
As part of the University of Dundee we do not own or sell data. We are the East regional node for NHS Scotland Research and Development, supporting the re-use of sensitive data on behalf of the Scottish Government. We represent the green section of the map, which includes three of Scotland’s fourteen health boards.
We are part of the Scottish Safe Haven Network which includes four regional Safe Havens, one National Safe Haven (eDRIS) and support from Research Data Scotland (RDS). We comply with the Scottish Safe Haven Charter, an agreed set of standards for secure data access and work together for improvement of national strategies.
The map shows these geographical divisions for:
- Aberdeen (Grampian Data Safe Haven (DaSH))
- Dundee (Health Informatics Centre (HIC))
- Glasgow (West of Scotland Safe Haven)
- and Edinburgh (DataLoch)
SATRE
HIC are leaders in secure data management and work regionally, nationally, and internationally on projects to advance data science. Current projects include TREvolution which will tackle some of the biggest challenges in secure data access and analysis (2025-2027).
Not all TREs are created equal, and different countries will have different legal and ethical frameworks and standards. At HIC, we champion best practices in standards, such as SATRE (v1 published 2023). SATRE stands for “Standardised Architecture for Trusted Research Environments” and tells you exactly what TREs should be like. This makes sure that TREs can meet certain requirements. SATRE is being developed further in TREvolution to advance the useability, and help researchers unlock the full potential of sensitive data for public good.
Watch an introduction to the SATRE project
Health data ecosystem
In 2021 the World Health Organization created one image to explain a health data ecosystem. For us, this is about balancing our responsibilities to allow the flow of data, trust, and value to move within our wider ecosystem.
We process data for data controllers including NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government and are accountable to the Chief Scientists Office. Locally, we work with partners including NHS Tayside, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, and Tayside Medical Science Centre (TASC). Re-use of NHS data can enable significant advances in healthcare innovation, medical technology industry, and improve our scientific understanding, which benefits all of us. Our TRE capabilities are strengthened by our governance policies, including the International Standard for Information Security (ISO 27001), NHS England’s Data Security and Protection Toolkit accreditation and Digital Economy Act accreditation.
We do not control access to NHS data but could be considered as ‘gatekeepers’. Our standard operating procedures and information security standards are published openly. Our TRE is used to securely store NHS data and to provide research ready extracts when approvals are in place.
Partners
